Let it Shine
by The Forgetful Bel
Summary: Based on the idea that all robots are humans. Wally is a human child, the only human left alive on Earth. He is one of the last lights left on the Globe, which is just enough to keep the Guardians alive. Wally is stuck in New York while the Guardians are trapped at the North Pole. Can they help one of their last believers? Features Child Wally, Baby Tooth as Hal and teen Eve.
1. Chapter 1: The Last Light

Author's Note: Ok, so I knooow I have a bunch of stories to work on already but this idea absolutely refused to stop bothering me. I had read a novelization of the movie WALL-E where all the robots had been turned human. I really liked it, but it was incredibly violent at the end and Wally's age in it didn't seem quite right to me. WALL-E is so innocent in the movie that I thought he'd be better suited to be a kid. And if he was a child, then of _course_ the Guardians should be there too.

Unfortunately, if you decide to turn all the robots human, this makes WALL-E's world much darker. So I'm sorry to say that this fic will be very angst filled. This is going to be my version of the whole "all the robots are human" thing in WALL-E with the Guardians (and Pitch!) all thrown in there just because. This story is obviously AU from WALL-E and AU from the Guardians. It has absolutely nothing to do with any of my other stories that involve the Guardians, although there might be a couple references if you squint. Pitch in this hasn't been redeemed. ROTG happened like it did in the movie, but since WALL-E takes place so long after the ROTG events, I'm going to assume Pitch had gathered up enough of his powers to be able to resume spreading his nightmares, but this time more normally and _not_ as a megalomaniac trying to take over the world.

In this, since Wally is a child, he's one of the last lights on the globe of believers. Jack Frost is the other last light, since he died when he wasn't quite an adult. For now, we can assume that WALL-E will follow some loose form of the movie and we'll see in the future how the Guardians change things. For those who love Hal, I'm really sorry.

I also need to add that there will be _**no pairings**_ since Wally is a kid in this! He and Eve will only have friendship! And since I consider the Guardians to be one big happy family, they won't have any pairings either.

I think I covered everything, so if you still want to read this here you go!

 **Chapter One: The Last Light**

The Earth used to be a beautiful place, once seen from space as a wonderful planet full of blues and greens with the occasional white cloud cover. But as centuries passed, the white clouds took on a dirty tinge and the blue and green began to fade and eventually, all was covered as more and more junk satellites began to surround the Earth.

Now there was a brown haze over the planet that was once so full of life and all the green had faded to a dead brown. The weather, which was always a little unpredictable anyway (no matter how much science advanced, it seemed like the weatherman couldn't get his predictions right), became even more so.

Now wild and unpredictable storms ravaged the Earth although hardly any humans remained to deal with it. In fact, only one human remained - a lone human boy, who was currently fulfilling his directive - to collect garbage and compact it. He was wearing a dark yellow coverall that had BnL across the back of it and on the front was the name "Wally" embroidered in blue surrounded by a red background. The once pristine coverall was incredibly filthy, covered in who-knows-what from day after day of dealing with garbage.

Wally paused to look at the sky overhead as he gauged the time of day. He guessed it was around midday by the position of the sun. He sighed, he still had hours left to go before he was done. His green eyes were hidden behind an old pair of wraparound sunglasses, that blocked out the harsh rays of the sun. They reflected a rainbow of colors as they covered Wally's eyes in a continuous line and would look nicely hi-tech if it weren't for the crack that had slowly made its way across the lens from the lower right corner.

His feet were protected by heavy steel-toed work boots that were a little too big for him. They made him clumsy and were very worn, as though he'd been wearing them for a long, long time. Around his waist was a toolbelt that held various little pockets that held small gadgets that were in various degrees of workability, that would help him out in his neverending trash duty.

Strapped to his back was a small pack that contained whatever he happened to find interesting amongst the garbage. As he surveyed his surroundings, a small chirp in his ear alerted him to his one companion - a small hummingbird-like creature that sat on his shoulder, with blue-green feathers and big, amethyst eyes.

Wally glanced at her and gave her a small smile. He remembered how she had found him years ago when he was younger and so very lost and alone. He had been completely alone for a few years by then, and the constant solitude had finally worn him down. His directive had been drilled constantly into his head, but even that had seemed pointless without anyone to do his directive _for._

He had been curled up by a pile of trash, his legs pulled up to his chest as he cried out all his pain and frustration. He realized that there would be no comforting words, nobody to help him - ever. He couldn't help but think of all the pain and terror he had been through those short few years ago when the last of humanity, save for himself, had died.

Then she had shown up, when the last of his hope had been about to fade, the very last vestiges of his belief in much of anything was about to die. Her chirp had caused him to jerk his head up sharply and his green eyes to widen behind his protective glasses. She looked at him anxiously as he removed his glasses and blinked at the harsh light as he continued to stare at her.

Just as Wally had decided that she must be a figment of his imagination, she flew straight at him and snuggled in the crook of his shoulder near his neck, giving him all the love and comfort that she could with her small size. Wally had flinched violently at the touch, not having felt anything for a few years, and even then it hadn't been loving.

He supposed his parents must have once held him close and said nice things to him, but he could barely remember them, time having made their images fuzzy and indistinguishable. Wally had sniffled and started to cry again, but this time was from relief.

He wasn't so alone after all.

Ever since then, the little creature had remained at his side. She only ever left him once every two months or so and even then it was only for a few days. He never knew where she went nor did she ever try to convey to him what she was up to. It was enough that she was there.

Wally wiped sweat from his forehead, unknowingly spreading dirt from his sleeve across it as he shook his head to banish such sad memories away. He had protective brown work gloves on his hands and carried a shovel over his left shoulder, as on his right the little creature was perched. Even though she was perfectly capable of flying, she was more than content to get a free ride on his shoulder.

She chirped inquisitively as Wally spotted something in the junk that looked to be of interest to himself. The harsh sunlight glinted off of it enticingly and he grabbed a hold of it and tugged. It was buried in all the trash and he had to pull hard to get it out. As he gave a particularly hard yank, it popped free and he fell over backward from the force.

The little creature chirped in alarm and worriedly hovered near Wally's face, having taken flight before she could be squished from his falling over. Wally sat up and tried to give her a reassuring smile, but he began to cough. As he drew in a ragged breath after his coughing fit, the little creature could hear Wally's terrible wheezing as he struggled to breathe.

Wally couldn't seem to stop coughing and his face was turning red from his efforts to struggle to breathe. He frantically grabbed at a pouch on his belt, but couldn't seem to find what he was looking for. The creature seemed to know what he was after though and hastily flew to the proper pouch, opening it with practiced ease and darting inside. Soon she flew out from the pouch, struggling with an ancient inhaler that was about the same size as she was.

Wally's hand managed to grab the inhaler from her and as he drew in as deep a breath he could manage, he hastily shook the inhaler and then inserted it in his mouth and pressed down on the top. He held his breath as he let the medicine work, but soon he was coughing again. He took another hit from the inhaler and after what felt like forever, his breathing settled down into something more normal again.

Wally took in the large, worried amethyst eyes that were looking so concerned for him and he gave her a small smile.

"Th-thank you," he said to her, his voice rough from all the coughing and from disuse.

The little creature chirped in relief and snuggled into the crook of Wally's shoulder and neck. Wally flinched a little from the sudden contact and just sat there for a moment as he breathed. He looked down at the inhaler and shook it a little, listening to it rattle. He had several others at his home, but he knew they wouldn't last forever. Eventually, he would run out, and then...

His expression grew somber as he tried very hard not to think of what came after "and then." He looked over at what had practically killed him to extract from the trash and saw a dirty hubcap. A smile grew on his face as he looked at it. He lifted it up and held it above his head at an angle as if he were holding a hat. He glanced at the creature as if he wanted to ask what she thought, but she was too busy snuggling him for reassurance.

His look softened and he picked his shovel back up that he had dropped and continued on his way. He compacted a few more small cubes of trash as he lugged a compact trash compacter along via a small, rusty red wagon. The compacter, thankfully, was made out of very advanced metals that made it not too heavy or difficult to manage. It was the same dirty, dark yellow as Wally's work clothes and it too, looked like it had seen better days.

Some hours later, Wally decided to head home. His little red wagon also held the shovel now as well as the hubcap as he slowly lugged it along. He made sure to walk at a steady pace, to make sure that it wouldn't upset his breathing. He had learned early on that moving too fast aggravated it and would send him into a coughing fit. Sometimes his emotions would set it off as well, as crying seemed to trigger it too.

The little creature chirped at him inquisitively and Wally glanced at her. She had been especially clingy after his latest coughing fit as if she were afraid he would disappear if she dared to move any farther away from him. She looked anxious, but she also had that antsy look she sometimes got, right before she left him alone for a few days. He never said anything, but those days were the worst for him. They reminded him of those terribly lonely years when he had no one.

Wally's face fell, but he tried to perk up for her.

"Go," he told her simply, his voice quiet in the neverending silence that was their world.

She looked so worried, but Wally smiled and tried to let her know without words that he would be alright. She hesitated another minute before she gave him a small peck on the cheek and zipped off into the air.

He watched her fly off, a blue-green blur in their world of brown, and then she was gone. Wally's face fell and he looked down at the ground, his sun-bleached blond hair falling into his eyes.

He hated it when she left.

* * *

Baby Tooth flew as fast she could, knowing she had a long distance to travel and knowing that the journey would be very hazardous. The weather was so unpredictable and the air was so dirty and polluted.

But after several hours of uneventful traveling, she wound up in a very cold, desolate place and soon found herself at a workshop that hadn't changed in several centuries. She hastily zipped in through a window that had carelessly been cracked open and went straight to the globe room.

There sat the solemn figures of the Guardians. Tooth, who normally couldn't sit still was slumped in a chair, her bright colors had faded and her face set in a worried frown. North was also sitting in a chair as he munched on a Christmas cookie. Sandy was sitting next to Tooth on a couch as he sipped a mug of eggnog and Bunny sat next to him as a small pooka kit. His green eyes were fixed upon the globe of believers, which only had two lights on it. One was a regular light, set fixedly in New York while the other was a blue light that was at the North Pole, zipping around every which way.

"Baby Tooth!" Tooth suddenly exclaimed as she caught sight of her fairy.

Baby Tooth zoomed up to Tooth and began to chirp excitedly as she relayed the last few months to Tooth.

"Whoa, whoa! Slow down!" Tooth said with a small laugh. She was always the happiest when Baby Tooth was around.

Sandy formed a few golden images above his head with dreamsand as he too, asked Baby Tooth what was happening.

"What's she sayin'?" Bunny asked impatiently.

"Oh," Tooth said as her face fell. "Wally's asthma was acting up again."

"Is he alright?" North asked, his voice full of concern.

Tooth listened as Baby Tooth chirped some more and nodded.

"Baby helped him get to his inhaler in time and he seems to be alright," she replied.

"Is he still goin' out and compactin' that trash?" Bunny scoffed. "Ya know that air's what's hurtin' him! He oughtta stay in where he'd be safe."

Baby Tooth glanced sadly at Bunny and Tooth picked up on it.

"It's all he knows," Tooth said sadly. "What else would he do? He's the last human left on the planet, as far as we know. Without his compacting, he has no purpose."

"He's a kid!" Bunny roared in frustration, his whole body quivering in fury. "This is.. it's.. _insane!_ What gumby ups and leaves a bunch of people on a dyin' planet ta go off on a cruise?!"

"I know," Tooth sighed sadly. "And it seems that all those people that have left have forgotten all about us. We're lucky that Wally still believes."

The Guardians all shared a somber look, as they remembered years ago when the last human light on the globe had begun to flicker and grow very dim. Baby Tooth had squeaked in alarm and before anyone could stop her, had zipped right off to the last light.

Jack had tried to go too but returned a few hours later to say that the weather was too hot for him and he couldn't get very far beyond the North Pole. If it wasn't for his powers, even the North Pole might have melted and become a desert wasteland too.

They had all watched and waited with bated breath, but after a few days, the light on the globe had stopped flickering and then grew stronger. Now it shone brightly on the globe as little Wally had still believed very much in all the Guardians.

"Ah," North sighed miserably, "If only my snow globes still worked! Wally could come stay with us and be very happy."

"All our powers are kaput, 'cept for Sandy's dreamsand," Bunny said glumly. "My poor googies! Left all alone fer _years._ "

Sandy made a few dreamsand symbols above his head saying that at least sometimes he could give Wally good dreams.

Baby Tooth chirped in agreement and then perked up as she looked over at the window.

Bunny, who had noticed this, looked over at the window too.

"What is it?" he asked. "Is it - "

But he was cut off by a chilly winter wind as the window blew open and a snowball flew right in his face.

"FROST!" Bunny roared as he wiped the snow off his face with his tiny paws.

"Sorry, it slipped!" Jack said with laughter in his voice as he used his Wind to fly into the room via one of the upper windows.

"How is weather outside?" North asked Jack with amusement. "Nice and snowy?"

"Here at least," Jack replied as his smile faded. "But out there.."

Baby Tooth flew up from where she had been sitting on Tooth's shoulder and zoomed over to Jack, snuggling into his hoodie affectionately.

"Baby Tooth!" Jack said happily as he perked up at the sight of her. "I missed you."

"She missed you too, Jack," Tooth said fondly to him.

"How's Wally?" Jack asked curiously.

"His asthma's actin' up," Bunny grumbled. "If the gumby'd only stay inside.."

"What fun is that?" Jack responded as he twirled his staff.

"The kind that keeps ya alive," Bunny snapped. "Yer the only believer on the globe 'sides Wally. What do ya think's going ta happen if he stops believin' in us or dies?"

Jack grew solemn as he took that in and he looked over at the globe, to the last two lights present on it.

The Guardians all exchanged worried glances when the blue light dimmed a little.

"Do you think we're all going to die?" Jack asked, as his expression grew unreadable.

Baby Tooth shook her head vehemently and glared at Bunny from her spot in Jack's hoodie.

Bunny looked taken aback at the question and noticed that everyone besides Jack was suddenly glaring at him. He remembered that even after all these years, Jack still had bouts of doubt and often needed to be reassured. He was, after all, their immortal child. Not quite an adult, but not quite a little kid either. He would forever be stuck in between.

"'Course not," Bunny said with a frown. "If I believed that, there'd be no hope left."

Jack looked confused at that.

"But you just said - "

"I say a lotta things," Bunny grumbled. "Doesn't mean it's true. I'm just upset that Wally's all by himself with no one ta look after him."

Baby Tooth chirped indignantly from her spot in Jack's hoodie as she shook a wing at him.

" _Besides_ Baby Tooth," Bunny quickly amended.

"At least Baby Tooth can take back a few trinkets for him," Tooth said with a smile at her fairy.

Sandy nodded and held up a small bag of dreamsand triumphantly.

Jack smiled at Sandy and the blue light on the globe brightened.

"He'll have nothing but good dreams for awhile," Jack said.

Jack held out his hand and a small ice figurine of all the Guardians appeared in it with a swirl of ice blue winter magic.

"He can have this too," Jack said as he brought it over to Sandy, so it could go with the dreamsand. "Then he'll know that we're always thinking of him."

Bunny looked a little wistful when he saw that Jack had them all as they were when they had their powers. He really missed being his full size and being able to create his tunnels.

"We should see if we can fit a little food in there too," Tooth said fretfully. "And water!"

Jack glanced at Baby Tooth.

"Think you can carry all that?" he asked her.

Baby Tooth nodded in determination.

It wasn't much longer before she was carrying a small bag that contained the bag of dreamsand, Jack's ice figurine of the Guardians, and a small stack of sandwiches with a bottle of water. There was also a note signed by all the Guardians.

It wasn't much, but it would have to do.

* * *

Wally trudged home all by himself, the journey seemed so much longer due to the fact that he was all alone. When he finally made it to the BnL truck that he called home, his feet felt like they were ready to fall off.

He pulled a lever on his truck and the large back door of the truck opened to reveal the small interior. He glanced behind himself, but of course, there was no blue-green blur that would be flying in behind him. With a sigh, he pulled the lever that would close the door behind him. After hearing it clank shut, he groped around in the dark until he was able to turn on his white Christmas lights.

He parked his red wagon over in a corner of the truck where he kicked off his boots and gloves and left them near the wagon. Likewise, his coverall was unzipped and pulled off to reveal a very skinny boy in a tattered blue BnL t-shirt and jeans with bare feet.

He hung the coverall on a hook that had been welded on and then opened up his pack, which he had also taken off. In it were a variety of things that he had found throughout the day. He carried the pack over to a collection of rotating shelves, that housed everything he had collected over the years.

He pulled out a Rubix cube and stared at all the pretty colors. He smiled at it happily before placing it on a shelf. Next, he pulled out a spork and looked at it, confused. He pressed a button and the shelves rotated around until they revealed Wally's collection of silverware, which had a cup of spoons, a cup of forks and a cup of knives. He held the spork out to the spoons and then the forks and looked even more confused than before. With a shrug, he gently set the spork down in the middle and decided he'd figure it out later.

As he emptied his pack of a few more trinkets, he pulled out a book he had found, which by now was quite old. It was leatherbound and very, very worn. His eyes lit up when he recognized it. Didn't he have a copy of this same book? What were the odds that he'd find it again? He pressed the button for his shelves until it rotated around to reveal his collection of books that was slowly taking over everything. He had all sorts of books: fiction, non-fiction, children's books.. Every book imaginable. Wally sorted through the books until he came up with a familiar leatherbound book. He smiled since the very last sections of this book had been missing.

He opened up the new book and was delighted to find that this one was intact! He eagerly turned the pages to the last sections to see that the parts he had been missing were there. He reverently touched the page, as he read the words: _Jack Frost, Spirit of Winter_.

He had heard of Jack of course, from the other Guardians, and had sworn that when he was much younger he had even seen Jack once. But that was so long ago. He closed the book and hugged it to his chest and then carefully set it on his shelves with his other books. He put his other trinkets away and then rotated the shelves around to his collection of wraparound shades, that all looked very similar to the ones he had on. He pulled them off and carefully set them on the shelf. Even though they had a crack in them, they could still be useful.

He pressed the button again and rotated the shelves around to his very meager medical supplies. He had learned long ago to try and disinfect any wounds he had, lest he get a bad infection and die. A lot of his fellow workers had gone out that way when the rioting had gotten bad and the medical supplies were at an all-time low.

Wally shivered and tried to banish the thoughts away as he coughed. He paused, as if trying to see if this would bring on another coughing fit, but after a few more coughs he settled down. Breathing a sigh of relief, he set his inhaler down on the shelf with the other inhalers and scant few bandages he had managed to scrounge up.

Wally looked down at his feet and wiggled his toes. Other than feeling sore and tired, they seemed to be alright. He looked over at his boots by his wagon and made a face. They were getting incredibly worn and the soles were starting to separate from the rest of the boot. He'd have to go and scavenge some more tomorrow.

Having his possessions settled, he grabbed the hubcap and turned on his makeshift iPod, which was jury-rigged to an old VCR. A tape was sticking out of the VCR and he pushed it in and it automatically began to play. The tape had been labeled _"Hello Dolly"_ and it began to play at an upbeat part with a lot of dancing and singing.

Wally guided a magnifier he had managed to jury-rig together that was attached to the wall, out in front of the small iPod screen to enlarge the picture. He giggled and held the hubcap over his head at an angle like the gentleman was doing with his hat as he tried to clumsily copy the dance steps. He wound up tripping over his feet and falling over, but he had a huge grin on his face.

After that, he sat up on the floor and settled down to just watch the movie play out. He loved this movie for the colorful costumes and the way that everyone was so clean and happy. He wished that he could have what they have, and it was this movie that inspired him to keep compacting his trash. He knew that if he kept it up, his world could be just as wonderful as this too.

It wasn't long before a more romantic scene came up on the iPod, where the man and woman were holding hands as they sang to each other. Wally looked wistfully at the hands. He often wished he had a friend he could hold hands with. To him, holding hands meant that you had a good friend to be with. Sadly, he couldn't ever remember holding hands with someone that way. He supposed he must have at some point, but he must have been very young and he couldn't remember back that far.

Looking a little melancholy after the scene, Wally stood back up and stopped playing the tape. He carefully rewound it and then popped the tape back out. He went back to his rotating shelves and rotated it around to his book section, which had a side dedicated to other media as well. He carefully set _"Hello Dolly"_ down and picked up another tape that was simply labeled _"Holiday Specials."  
_

He carried it over to his VCR and it started up on his very favorite special, a stop-motion animation called _"The Easter Bunny is Coming to Town."_ It reminded him of when he was small and he used to find colorful Easter eggs sometimes when he was out compacting the garbage. He'd tuck the eggs into his pockets and share them with his fellow workers. He had tried to explain that the Easter Bunny had left them, but his fellow workers didn't care where the eggs had come from, it was food.

He remembered one time he had been out in the city and had spotted a colorful egg. He had eagerly run over to it, only to spot a blue-gray paw touching the egg. He had looked up to see the impossibly tall (to him, anyway) form of the Easter Bunny.

"Can ya see me?" Bunny had asked in disbelief. There weren't a lot of children left, and in the bleak living conditions, not a lot of them still believed.

Wally silently nodded, his green eyes wide and Bunny couldn't help but remember another child with blond hair and green eyes from so _very_ long ago.

 _"Bunny! Hop hop hop!"_

It hurt his heart to remember, but he mustered up a smile for the kid all the same.

"What's yer name, kid?" he asked Wally gently.

"..W.. w.. " Wally had started to reply when a sharp shout caused him to flinch.

"Wally!" a man's angry shout sounded. "What are you doing?! Get to work!"

"Sorry," Wally whispered to the Easter Bunny, his green eyes turning downcast. He pulled a child's pair of sunglasses out of his pocket and put them on, having forgotten to do so earlier.

"Here," Bunny said as he placed the colorful egg into Wally's hand. "Happy Easter, Wally."

Wally held the egg to his chest like it was his most precious treasure and Bunny tried not to notice how Wally's lower lip trembled and a tear coursed down his cheek, leaving a clean trail through the dirt smudged on his cheeks.

Wally had wanted to ask the Easter Bunny so many things, but another sharp shout caused Wally to hastily stuff the egg into his pocket and scurry away towards his little wagon that held his trash compactor. Without a backward glance, he had gone on to do his directive.

Bunny had made sure to visit Wally every chance he got, even though it wasn't Easter because it was rare to find a kid that still believed and he knew it was only a matter of time before all their powers went kaput. Jack seemed to be the only one unaffected, but then again, Jack had survived centuries with no believers. It was different for the Seasonals.

It was only a few short years after that, that Wally found himself all alone. Wally blinked as his small reverie was cut short by the happy songs of the Easter special. He watched as it got to the part about the young prince, who was terribly lonely. The prince was even blond, like himself. Wally liked to think of himself like the prince, lost in a land of adults (who left him all alone) and banished to his truck like the prince had been sent to his room without dinner.

About halfway through the special, Wally found his eyes getting heavy as the hard day's labor took its toll on him. He crawled over to the thin mattress that was his bed and dragged it over so that it lay in front of the magnified screen of the iPod. He lay down on it and closed his eyes as the special continued to play in the background.

* * *

Hours later, there was a wail as Wally sat bolt upright, the iPod screen blank as the tape had run itself out and stopped playing. He looked around his truck fearfully, his green eyes wide as he pulled his legs up to his chest. He looked around for his little companion before he remembered that she would be gone for a few days.

He sniffled and buried his face in his knees, but a soft chuckle caused him to flinch and jerk his head up. He looked over at a dark corner and saw a pair of golden eyes glinting at him from out of the darkness.

"I hardly need to give you any nightmares, when you're so good at making up your own," a deep voice drawled.

Wally shivered and looked away from the eyes.

The _Boogeyman._

Wally mustered up his courage and looked back at the eyes, intending to speak, but coughing soon overtook him and wracked his small frame.

Pitch watched in mild concern as one of the last lights seemed to struggle to breathe. His concern grew as the coughing intensified and the boy's wheezing grew raspier as his cheeks turned red. Pitch had seen him like this before, but the boy always had that device with him, that he would pop into his mouth and soon his breathing would be easier.

But now as he watched, the boy seemed to be clutching at his chest and was most certainly _not_ getting the device out. The golden eyes looked about the small interior of the truck and Pitch cursed himself again for not having enough power to leave the shadows and travel as he used to. The most he could do now was spy on people from the shadows. As there were only the Guardians trapped in the North Pole and this boy, his spying options were a little limited.

His eyes fell on the shelves and he knew he had seen the boy rotate them around. The golden eyes left the shadow in the corner for a moment to reappear in a shadow near the shelves. After a few frantic moments of searching, he found what he was looking for and a single golden eye reappeared in a very small shadow near the medical supplies.

He summoned every last ounce of his strength and the golden eye was replaced by gray fingers that reached out from the shadow. They managed to grab the edge of an inhaler and were just barely able to topple the inhaler over into the shadow.

The next thing Wally knew, his inhaler had come sailing out of the dark shadows in the corner of the truck and bounced right off his forehead. He was so startled that he stared at it a moment, stopping in mid-cough with his cheeks red from the exertion of trying to breathe as his airways felt tight and constricted.

Then another series of coughs wracked his frame and he scrambled to pull the cap off the inhaler as he shook it hard and soon he had triggered it in his mouth. It took him several minutes to calm down from this episode and he sat there breathing as he massaged his chest. Even though the medicine was working to open his airways back up, he still sounded raspy and had an occasional cough.

It took him a minute to realize that the _Boogeyman_ had just saved his life. He had carelessly put his inhaler away when he came back in and was too tired when he went to sleep to remember to grab it, in case he needed it in the night.

It was a careless mistake that could have killed him. He looked over at the golden eyes that were still watching him, his own green eyes uncertain.

"Contrary to popular belief," the voice drawled, and Wally thought he could hear the voice tremble slightly. But that was just his imagination, right? "I do not want children to die."

Wally opened his mouth and then closed it. He didn't know what to say, so instead, he just nodded awkwardly, his blond locks falling into his eyes.

"That nightmare you had was not one of mine," the voice continued, the tone turning strange.

Wally clutched his inhaler to himself as he recalled the horrible nightmare. It had taken place not long before he was left all alone. Those few weeks before he was by himself were some of his worst memories ever. He tried very hard not to think of them.

He glanced over to see that the golden eyes seemed to be on the verge of going away. He felt a little panicked at the thought of being left all alone to his terrible memories.

"Will you stay?" Wally rasped out, his voice soft in the dark. Only now could he hear a sandstorm raging all around them, the howling wind making everything seem that much darker and frightening.

Pitch had been about to leave, satisfied that the boy would live, at least for a little while longer. Then a small voice called out, full of desperation. It was the pleading voice of an abandoned child. A child who had no one else to turn to.

The golden eyes had frozen as Pitch stared at the boy, who was looking at him with haunted eyes. Pitch wasn't sure how old Wally was exactly, but he knew that malnutrition had stunted the boy's growth and made him seem that much younger than he was. If he had to make a guess, he'd say that the boy was maybe around eleven or so, but he couldn't be sure.

Pitch swallowed as he stared at the boy from the shadows. Comforting children wasn't exactly his territory, but now with the Guardians trapped at the North Pole, he supposed it must come down to him. He scowled at the thought. Where were dreams, hope, and wonder when you needed them?

"I.. suppose, I would be amenable," the deep voice replied, rumbling out of the shadow.

Wally sighed in relief, and after a moment he crawled over to the VHS player and rewound his tape. They spent the rest of the night in silence, one pair of emerald eyes and one golden, both watching the holiday specials of centuries past.

* * *

Author's Note: Fun Fact: _The Easter Bunny is Coming to Town_ is an actual stop-motion special that I had taped on a VHS tape forever ago and used to watch over and over. I figured if WALL-E can have _Hello Dolly!_ then he can have that too. In fact, if you want to see it for yourself, it's up on youtube. It's from 1977 and pops up as the first result with a picture of the Easter Bunny standing on top of a yellow train.

Instead of giving Wally some form of prosthetic or pacemaker or something that needs to be charged, I gave him asthma. I figure with all the dust, dirt and pollution around, it would be a believable ailment for him to have that would hinder him. If anyone is interested in this, I'll continue to post for this story. I figure I can rotate it around with my other stories I'm writing for and whichever one my muse is in the mood for is the one that will get updated. :)

As for Wally's lack of a cassette player, I haven't forgotten about it! It'll pop up in the next chapter. He was just distracted by Baby Tooth and his asthma. As always, if you have any ideas/feedback please let me know! However, _please_ be kind in your criticism.

 **Edit:** Also, I decided that with both Jack and Wally on the globe, there would be juuust enough belief left for Baby Tooth and her sisters to fly, but not enough for Tooth to fly, in case you were wondering. This is AU after all.


	2. Chapter 2: Do Dreams Come True?

Author's Note: I _finally_ have the next chapter of this finished! I have to warn you that it does get pretty angsty. Turning all the robots human and having to deal with all the human emotions that go along with it _really_ makes things seem so much darker in this. This chapter is a bit longer than the last one I believe. I was determined to not stop until we finally got to see Eve, but quickly realized that was out. Eve will most likely turn up in the next chapter. Sorry if you guys think the story is moving slowly, but I didn't want to speed through everything either. I promise the next chapter won't be so depressing as this one was.

Also, I realized I didn't have Wally come across the holographic ads that he comes across in the movies. That's because I purposely skipped him going over that big bridge. In the movie it's got debris and old WALL-E units on it, but in this fic.. Yeaah. Imagine all the robots as humans and you'd understand why I glossed over it. Anyway, I figure those sorts of ads are probably all over the place so I moved them a little. They are important to the story. If you're wondering about the billboard, it'll be seen later on.

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own WALL-E or any of the characters in Rise of the Guardians. The ad text near the end of the chapter belongs to WALL-E.

Chapter Two: Do Dreams Come True?

Wally opened his eyes at the crack of dawn and yawned as he blearily sat up. He looked around for a moment, confused since he didn't remember falling asleep. He rubbed an eye sleepily as he looked at the dark corner, but the golden eyes had vanished.

With a sigh, Wally rewound his tape and popped it out of the VCR. He carried it over to his shelves and rotated them around until he could put it with his other tapes. Picking up _"Hello Dolly,"_ he took it back to his VCR and popped it in. It automatically began to play and Wally happily hummed along with the merry tune.

He went over to where he kept a stack of clothes in varying states of cleanliness and changed into another generic BnL shirt, this one red and another pair of blue jeans. That settled, he walked over to where he kept his food. Set up on a crate in another corner, he had a small stack of prepackaged food next to an ancient hot plate with a single pot on it. Wally looked into the pot to see that it was empty, but that he had a bottle of boiled rainwater all ready to go. Wally smiled at this and helped himself to a little water.

He then opened up a Kremie and ate the whole thing in two bites before he grabbed a very bland BnL type of food.

 _"Has all your required nutrients!"_ was written enticingly on the package, but Wally hardly noticed. He too ate that in only a few bites and found his stomach was still rumbling with hunger. He sighed, but looking at his meager food supply, he knew he wouldn't be able to eat anymore. At least, not for breakfast.

He wrinkled his nose at the thought of going out and looking for more supplies, since wandering the city was one of his least favorite things to do. He liked to look for hidden treasures when he compacted trash, but looking for other things wasn't really his forte and he wasn't a fan.

Once he was finished eating, he dusted his hands of the crumbs and searched his pockets. Looking embarrassed, he went back to his clothes and fished around in the pocket of the jeans he had previously been wearing. Finding the inhaler that the Boogeyman had thrown at him in the front pocket, he shook his head at himself and carried it over to his coveralls. He carefully put them back on and tucked his inhaler into a pocket on his toolbelt while _"Hello Dolly"_ played in the background.

After zipping up his dark yellow coveralls and donning his brown steel-toed work boots, he double checked he had everything, and then rolled his eyes at himself as he wandered back over to his shelves. Once he had a pair of wraparound shades on, he grabbed an extra inhaler to tuck into another pouch - just in case.

He wouldn't always have Baby Tooth or even Pitch to save him and he'd rather not die because his inhaler ran out of medicine thank you very much. He checked his toolbelt yet again and found the cassette player he had clipped to it. He checked the batteries and found them still good. With a grin, he pressed play and a song from _"Hello Dolly"_ played out of it, bright and cheerful.

Happily, he put the cassette player back on his belt while it still played and wandered over to the VCR. He quickly hit stop but left his precious tape in there, figuring it would be safe for now. Then he put his shovel back in his wagon with his miniature compacter and donned his work gloves. Certain that he had everything this time, he grabbed the handle of the wagon and after opening the back of the truck, he pulled the wagon down the ramp and slowly made his way into the heart of the city. There was a slight breeze today which caused it to kick up some dust that made him cough, but other than that he didn't have any troubles.

He heard an odd noise whenever he walked and looked down to see that the bottoms of his work boots were flapping when he walked. He frowned a little at them as he knew that he would have to go and scavenge some more and that meant he would have to borrow them from someone else. He hated that because it meant he would have to go to the once more populated areas of the city, and that was the stuff nightmares were made of.

He shivered a little as he remembered his nightmare from the other night. He _really_ didn't want to get new boots. He was soon distracted by the upbeat song playing from his cassette player though and let himself get lost in the music as he hummed along to the merry tune. He let his mind think of happier things, as he pretended he had cleaned up all the garbage and could now live in a bright and cheerful world, just like in his movie. He felt his hope rise along with the cheerful beats of the music.

* * *

Back at the North Pole, Bunny couldn't help the small grin that flitted across his face as he felt someone's hope rise. He couldn't tell whose it was exactly, but he had a feeling that it was Wally's since it felt younger and newer. It was a ragged hope, one that a child shouldn't have, but it had endured so much and Bunny knew that little Wally would continue to hope and dream.

Sandy also couldn't help a smile from spreading across his face as he felt Wally's wish for a bright, clean world come to him. It was a fine wish for a child to have and Sandy could only hope that it would come true.

He was distracted from his thoughts, however, when he heard a crash from somewhere and a very disgruntled Phil's grumbling followed by the infectious laughter of one Winter Spirit.

Bunny rolled his eyes good-naturedly and shared a smile with Sandy as the pair sat out in the globe room. Bunny hardly ever left there since becoming a little pooka kit, so he could always keep an eye on the globe and on the very last two lights.

No matter what happened, some things just wouldn't change.

* * *

While Wally was humming merrily, he failed to notice the golden eyes that seemed to be following after him, flitting from shadow to shadow in his wake. There was a faint "tsking" sound as the eyes took in the state of the boy's boots. They really wouldn't do at all - and in a filthy world such as this, could be quite dangerous.

Wally stopped humming abruptly as he heard a strange noise up ahead. Tilting his head curiously he hurried on ahead but was soon slowed right down again as he began to cough. He patted his chest and after a few moments managed to calm down again. He drew in a ragged breath and looked at what lay in the road ahead of him, looking very perplexed.

In front of him lay a used pair of workboots, roughly the same size as the ones he had on. They were standing up and just sitting there as though waiting for him to come get them. It was very strange since most usable supplies like this were either hidden or else on someone. Wally shivered and hastily pushed that thought far away. He didn't want to think about it. He dropped the handle of his wagon and walked over to the boots curiously. He toed one with his foot and peered inside. He couldn't see anything wrong with it, so he happily exchanged the newer boots for his worn ones and tested them out by walking in a small circle, stomping as he went to get a feel for them.

They were perfect! And now that he had them, he wouldn't have to go scavenging for any. Now he wouldn't have to face the horrible parts of the city and could go about compacting trash right away instead.

As Wally continued to walk, he finally noticed that every once in a while he'd see a pair of golden eyes flashing out at him from a shadow. The first time he spotted them, he jumped a little and went into a small coughing fit. After that though, he wondered what the Boogeyman was doing, following him around. Maybe he was bored?

Pitch grumbled to himself as he saw the foolish boy start digging around in the trash. Didn't he realize how dangerous that was? And just what was he doing outside with asthma as bad as that? With the terrible air quality, it would be sure to kill him!

..Not that he cared or anything.

But with only two lights left on the globe, Pitch didn't feel like finding out what would happen if the only light left belonged to a spirit. Maybe a spirit's belief wouldn't be enough to keep him and the Guardians alive.

And so, with that cheery thought, Pitch continued to follow the boy with his golden eyes flitting from shadow to shadow.

* * *

When the sun had fully risen in the sky, Wally found himself sitting very high up in the air on a partially made trash skyscraper that he had made over the course of many days. His wagon sat well away from the edge, but Wally was sitting right on the edge with his feet dangling off. He kicked them idly as he looked out over the city, his eyes hidden behind a pair of wraparound shades.

He still didn't see any sign of his little companion yet, but that wasn't unusual. It usually took her a day or two to get back to him. He didn't know where she went, but wherever it was, it was very far away.

He glanced back to see a pair of golden eyes glaring at him angrily and he couldn't help but give them a small smile. Even if it was the Boogeyman, it was still comforting to know that he wasn't all by himself.

Meanwhile, Pitch was having a small heart attack. All it would take was an ill-placed wind or a small scare and the boy would fall to his death! Didn't he have any self-preservation?! Pitch wanted to start ranting at the boy but was afraid that the boy would become startled and fall. Pitch grumbled quietly to himself and almost sighed in relief when the boy stood up and began to pull his wagon back down the trash skyscraper.

The path was wide enough for his wagon to go down easily and the slope wasn't too steep so his wagon wouldn't roll too quickly. Wally was careful to take it slow while he went down the skyscraper and after a bit, he finally made it down to the bottom. He stopped to catch his breath and then continued pulling his wagon behind him as he wandered off to find more things to compact. A few hours later, Wally had made even more progress to the very tall trash skyscraper. He now stood at the bottom, wheezing as he panted after having just climbed back down. He patted his chest and looked up at it. It looked fairly tall to him, but he could tell it wasn't the tallest one he had ever made.

He frowned a little as he noticed that his more recent trash skyscrapers kept getting shorter and shorter. Was his breathing getting worse? He shook his head at himself in denial. He was being silly.

He sighed and went to look up at the sky, but was caught off guard by a coughing fit. When he realized it was getting hard to breathe, he frantically reached into a pocket, fumbling a little as he pulled his inhaler out. He hastily shook it and popped it into his mouth, pressing down on the trigger. He coughed a little more, but after that, his breathing seemed to be easier. After taking a moment to catch his breath, he put the inhaler back into the pocket on his toolbelt.

His stomach rumbled with hunger, but he ignored it. He looked up at the skyscraper and decided he had done enough for now. Making sure that his shovel was still in his red wagon, he tugged the handle and pulled it along after himself.

After digging around in the trash for a while, he found even more trinkets to add to his collection. He paused in front of an old refrigerator and dropped the handle of the wagon as he tried to get the door open, but it remained stubbornly stuck. Luckily for Wally, he was even more stubborn. He coughed as he took a moment to make sure his breathing would be fine and then went digging around in his toolbelt pockets. He eventually held up a small handheld laser and fired carefully at the hinges of the door.

As he did so, he heard a sharp intake of breath behind himself and figured he had an audience again in the form of some golden eyes. He glanced back to see that there were golden eyes glaring angrily at him, as though berating him for the stupidity of handling such a dangerous tool. Wally rolled his eyes at this, as he'd been handling such tools for forever and he hadn't yet managed to cut off anything. At least he had thrown his old boots away, so the Boogeyman wouldn't see the old burn mark on one of the toes where he had accidentally fired his laser into it. Thankfully he had only scorched the outside a little.

Once the hinges had been taken care of, Wally stepped aside and the door fell off as he tried to open it. He looked inside to see a small green thing sprouting up from the inside, through a rusted out hole in the floor. Wally tilted his head at it, as his world mostly consisted of shades of brown and gray. He had never in his whole life seen anything like this thing before. He gently knelt down in front of it and poked at a fragile leaf. Not finding it anything dangerous, Wally opened his pack and dug around in his recently acquired treasures until he found something that would make a suitable carrier.

It was a very worn, small brown boot. Wally scooped the thing up, dirt, roots and all and plunked it down into the boot. Satisfied with his work he straightened up and put his pack back on after making sure it was closed. Still holding the boot in his hands, he turned and walked over to where the golden eyes were.

"Look," he said very softly to the Boogeyman, his voice raspy from the dust.

Being all by himself most of the time, he didn't find much of a reason to speak very often and it showed in the quiet way he spoke and the way his voice sounded, raspy and a little wheezy from all the dust and the continual struggle to breathe.

As Wally spoke, he held out the boot for the golden eyes to see the green thing better. When Wally held it out, the golden eyes went impossibly wide and Pitch stared at it in utter disbelief.

No.

Way.

Pitch couldn't believe it! Was that actually..

Could it be..?

A living..!

It had been _centuries_ since he had seen one.

As Pitch stared at the impossibility of a living _plant,_ for the first time in a long, _long_ time, he felt himself begin to hope.

* * *

Bunny jumped from his spot on the couch and looked over at Sandy, his silent partner in his neverending vigil on the globe. Bunny couldn't believe it, but he had just felt an old hope return. He could tell that it was _very_ old and extremely worn, as though it had been almost battered beyond repair.

Sandy tilted his head from studying the globe, where he had observed that Wally's light seemed a little brighter today than it had earlier. He had been trying to figure out why that would be when he felt two wishes come to him in a rush.

One was a childish wish, full of awe.

 _I wish I could see more of them!_

The other, was a quiet wish, whispered so softly as if the person wishing hardly dared to think it, in case it wouldn't come true.

 _Please,_ the wisher pleaded, almost desperately. _Live._

Sandy and Bunny both exchanged a perplexed look. What could all this mean?

Before they could speculate too much, however, a cold winter breeze announced Jack's presence as he landed with a plop down on the couch by Bunny, courtesy of the Wind.

"Hey Cottontail!" Jack said as he gave Bunny's head a pat while holding his staff in his other hand.

Bunny grumbled at the nickname and at the pat since Jack wouldn't dare pet him like that if he were his full size.

"Still givin' Phil a hard time?" Bunny asked, a little disgruntled still from the pat.

Jack gave Bunny his infamous smirk.

"Nah, I thought I'd let him have a break," Jack said. "Besides, I don't want to make the Naughty List!"

Bunny's ears went back at the offhand remark, but he quickly forced them back up so Jack wouldn't see how much it affected him. It still hurt to think that there were only two children on the List, one of them an immortal Winter Spirit.

Wally, much to Jack's amusement, had his name on the Good List with his name permanently underlined in green. Jack's name, however, wasn't so permanent and it would often flit back and forth from Naughty to Nice, but it somehow always managed to make it over to Nice when Christmastime rolled around.

Jack figured it was because he would often pop in just to see where he was at, that North bothered to have his name move around so much.

"So what are ya up ta then?" Bunny asked, trying his hardest to sound normal.

"Well," Jack replied, then hesitated. He gave Bunny an almost nervous glance as he unconsciously hugged his staff a little, as a child might to their favorite stuffed toy.

"What is it?" Bunny asked, concern making his tone come out more sharply than he intended.

"I wanted to see if I could make a storm last beyond the Pole," Jack said. "I know North said I could make as many storms as I needed to around here, but.."

Sandy and Bunny both got it at the same time, as a golden exclamation point appeared above Sandy's head at the same time that Bunny spoke.

"It's not enough, is it?" Bunny said, more statement than question.

"No," Jack said, his voice sounding hushed and even a little.. scared.

Bunny and Sandy exchanged a worried look at that, wondering how bad it had been for the Winter Spirit, to have him afraid.

"Why didn't ya tell us?" Bunny asked, his tone gentle as Sandy nodded in agreement. They had, after all, been trapped together for years. They shouldn't have secrets between them.

Jack gave an almost hysterical laugh as he ran his hand through his hair.

"What would I have said? 'Oh, sorry guys, but I have to extend where I spread my snow or else I'll probably bring another Ice Age to the Pole!'"

"..Is it that bad?" Bunny asked quietly.

Jack didn't answer as he hugged his staff to himself, his normally clear blue eyes stormy with his emotions. He jumped when he felt Sandy's hand on his knee, as he hadn't realized that Sandy had made his way over to him.

Sandy gave him a smile and a thumbs up as he pat Jack's knee.

"Sandy's right," Bunny said. "It'll all work out. No use worryin' about it. Why dontcha ya go outside and work off some of the steam now, yeah?"

Jack's eyes darkened a little in worry, but another pat from Sandy had him nodding as he called for the Wind. Soon he was whisked off through an open window, although this time there was no carefree laughter to go along with it.

Bunny turned to Sandy, a serious look on his face.

"We gotta tell the others," he said as Sandy nodded in agreement, a look of determination on his face.

They had to help Jack before his powers got out of control.

* * *

Pitch nearly rolled his eyes when his happy revelation was cut short by the sheer panic he felt flooding into him from the annoying Winter Spirit.

Couldn't the boy go _f_ _ive minutes_ without having an internal freakout?

He suspected if the Guardians knew how much their Guardian of Fun was secretly afraid, they'd probably wrap him in bubble wrap and never let him go anywhere.

As it was, the panicked _What if I bury them in snow?!_ hadn't been the first time Pitch had heard this fear, and he knew it wouldn't be the last. The fact that Jack kept repeating this fear more frequently told Pitch that Jack probably had the urge to spread snow to places other than the North Pole.

It was hardly surprising, considering that Jack used to spread snow across the world by himself and now he was contained to only the North Pole. Of course, he would be feeling a little.. trapped. Pitch paused to contemplate all the fear Jack had. If Jack kept this up, then perhaps he'd be able to leave the shadows much sooner than he had anticipated, which would be nice, as he didn't ever think he'd be able to ever again.

Wally eyed the golden eyes warily for a moment. He'd told the Boogeyman to look at the green thing, and the Boogeyman had seemed so surprised at it, and then he'd just kinda.. stared. A lot. Wally wasn't sure what that meant, but he hoped it was a good thing. When the eyes continued their silent perusal of the green thing, Wally pulled it away and gently set the boot down in the red wagon with his shovel.

He picked up the handle and pulled his wagon along, as he started to head back home. It would be a long walk and he knew that he wanted to make it home before any bad weather could crop up. After a moment, the golden eyes vanished from the shadow and soon Wally had the feeling that they were following him all the way home. He wondered if the Boogeyman would stay up and watch more movies with him again because that had been nice.

When Wally finally made it home, the sun was much farther along in the sky, but he didn't mind. He pulled the lever to open up his truck and then pulled his wagon inside. He paused to cough and then shot an annoyed look over at the golden eyes, as they had been saying things to him non-stop about the green thing and it was _really_ getting annoying now. He didn't really understand the significance of the green thing, but the Boogeyman seemed very worried about it.

Wally kicked his boots off and then set his gloves down in the wagon and unzipped his coveralls and hung them on the hook like he did every day. He ignored the annoyed huff from the darkness in the corner. Wally rubbed his rumbling stomach and looked over at his meager supplies in the corner. To the golden eyes' annoyance, Wally left the green thing in the wagon in favor of going over to his food supplies.

Since Baby Tooth wasn't there to eat her favorite snack, Wally helped himself to one in her place and ate another Kremie. He also forced himself to eat a nutritional BnL snack, as he remembered being told when he was young that he needed all the nutrients he could get. He finished off his small meal with a little more rainwater from the water bottle. At Pitch's angry huff, Wally paused in his drinking and rolled his eyes.

Pitch almost growled in annoyance at the boy. The foolish child did the same things every day! Couldn't he deviate for _one_ moment to, oh, he didn't know.. Save the planet?! Did he even understand what could happen if this plant died?! It could grow and help spread more plants and greenery throughout the planet. It could possibly end this horrid era of trash and bring things back to the way they used to be. But only if the boy watered the plant and helped nurture it! And the child had the audacity to _roll his eyes at him!_ Cheeky brat!

Wally ignored the eyes that were glaring at him and walked back over to the wagon. He tipped the bottle and gave it a little bit of water, but only a little bit. He didn't have much rainwater left since while it rained more frequently than it used to, he could never be certain when it would rain.

Satisfied that the green thing would be happy for now, he put the cap back on the bottle and set it back with his other supplies. He was pleased when all the Boogeyman did was huff in annoyance, but the golden eyes didn't start their non-stop tirade, so Wally would take it. He had never thought he'd ask the eyes to leave since that would mean he'd be all alone again, but the thought had briefly crossed his mind to ask them to.. maybe go somewhere else for a short while.

Wally looked at his dwindling food supplies and his pleased look vanished. Even though he'd been saved a trip today by finding those mystery boots out in his path, he'd still have to go look for supplies soon. He poked around at them and grimaced a little. He'd maaaybe be able to stretch them out through a few more days, but that was only if he cut down to one meal a day instead of his usual two and only if his friend didn't return to eat her Kremies like usual. He guiltily thought about how he'd thoughtlessly eaten _two_ while she had been gone. If he hadn't eaten those, then she'd have enough to last. As it stood, there was only one Kremie left and it was the only thing she seemed to want to eat while she was here.

Wally turned back to where he'd last seen the eyes only to find them not there anymore. Panicking just a little, Wally searched around inside his home but then paused when he finally found them to watch them in amusement. They were in a shadow near the little boot still in his red wagon and they were staring at the green thing again. Wally watched the Boogeyman for a minute, but the golden eyes didn't seem to be moving at all, so with a shrug, Wally turned back to his supplies.

He picked up a BnL cake and scarfed it down in a few short bites. He coughed as he swallowed the last bit of it and that cough turned into another and then another.. Hastily, Wally fumbled in his pocket for one of his inhalers. He triggered it in his mouth and then after a moment was relieved when his breathing eased. He stared down at it uneasily as he realized his attacks were getting more frequent. He didn't want to think of what that could mean.

Deciding he'd put it out of his mind, for now, he tucked the inhaler back into his jeans pocket carefully. He didn't want to make the same mistake he had made last night.

Wally visibly brightened a little when he saw the green thing since it reminded him of all the other treasures he had found that day. He grabbed his pack from where he had set it down and then wandered over to his shelves as he began digging around in it to put all his things away. As he did so, he purposely didn't think of what tomorrow would bring, since he knew if he was doing what he'd been thinking of doing, it would be the stuff of even more nightmares.

* * *

The next day dawned bright and early, with Wally waking up unusually early. He had already opened up the back of the truck to see that the sky was just starting to lighten. He noted with a small frown that a bunch of clouds had already moved in. In some ways, that would be good since it meant that the blazing hot sun wouldn't be continuously beating down on him. But in other ways, it was bad since clouds always meant that a storm was rolling in.

He stared at the clouds in consternation as he thought of what he should do. Some storms would come and be gone in a short period of time, but others would last for hours. He remembered one horrible time where storm after storm had come and gone for _two_ days. He couldn't afford to wait that long. Not really.

Sure, he could if he had to, but he knew from experience that cutting down his rations that much would leave him feeling weak and without any energy. It was a dangerous state to be in since that could be when he'd get sick, or worse. His mind unwillingly flashed back to all that time ago, when he'd seen dozens of others in such a state. Weakly calling out for help, for _food._

With a shudder, Wally's breathing picked up and he coughed. He patted his chest, willing his breathing to go back to normal, but of course, it wouldn't. It hardly ever did. He once again triggered his inhaler in his mouth and soon his breathing returned to normal. He looked over to where he had last seen the golden eyes, in a shadow by his mattress as they both watched _"Hello Dolly!"_ together.

Wally had been surprised when the Boogeyman had spoken to him. He didn't really talk all that much, except for earlier when he had been scolding Wally about the green thing.

"You see those trees in the background?" the Boogeyman had said.

Wally tilted his head at the screen. He had been laying on his stomach on his mattress, his chin propped up on his hands as he watched his favorite movie.

"T-tree?" Wally's quiet voice rasped, stuttering over the unfamiliar word.

"You can see the tall trunks and their leaves at the top," the Boogeyman continued. "And the grass, see how wonderful and green it is?"

Wally nodded and then quietly told the Boogeyman "yes," in case he was watching the screen more than he was watching Wally.

"If you care for that plant that you found today, it could grow to be just as beautiful. If you plant the seeds it gives, then that beauty could spread and before you know it, the entire planet could look just like that," the Boogeyman told Wally.

Wally gasped at that and scrambled to sit up as he stared at the movie in wonder.

"R-really?!" Wally gasped, his voice squeaking a little in awe.

He had no idea that his dream could come true just from one green thing! No wonder the Boogeyman had been harping on him so much about it!

"If you take good care of it," the Boogeyman said simply to him.

A huge grin spread on Wally's face at that, the biggest smile he ever had in his life.

Wally shook his head as he cleared his mind, and went back inside the truck. He wandered over to where the last of his boiled rainwater was and took a small sip. He stared at the rest thoughtfully and then wandered over to the green thing. If he was going to look after it, he'd better get started. He poked at one of the green leaves and wondered if such a small little thing really could make his world so bright and colorful. Then he poked at the soil and noticed it felt a little dry so he carefully poured the rest of his rainwater onto the dirt.

It was only a little bit since there wasn't very much left in his bottle. He hadn't even hesitated in pouring out the last of it since with the way those clouds were looking, he'd be able to collect plenty more water later on. He just hoped that the storm held off until he got back home. Normally when the sky was looking like that, Wally didn't like to go out. He had only a few memories of times he'd been caught out in storms and he didn't care to have a repeat.

Wally got changed into fresh clothes, donning his trusty boots and looked over at his coveralls. Then he looked past the coveralls to a lone hook in the corner of the truck, where something that had once been bright yellow lay forgotten. Wally had found it after he had been stuck outside during a storm once before he had met his little hummingbird friend. It looked dingy and faded, much like everything else he owned, but it was waterproof and had a hood.

Wally pulled it off the hook and checked the pockets and hood, just in case. He breathed a small sigh of relief when he saw that they were empty. It had been hanging there so long that he was afraid that some sort of creepy crawly might have found its way in there. Not finding anything, he put it on and zipped it up. It was too big on him, of course, and the coat went down to his mid-thigh with the sleeves hanging down over his hands. He pushed the sleeves up and fished around in the pouches of his toolbelt that was still on his coveralls and took a few tools out along with his inhaler.

He filled up the pockets of the raincoat with all the things he thought he'd need and then picked up his pack, slinging it over one shoulder after making sure it was empty. He needed all the space he could get. Then he looked over at his little red wagon and hesitated. Wally never left home without it, but with him going to other areas today, he wasn't certain if it would be a hindrance or not. He walked over to it and gave his trusty trash compacter a guilty pat.

"Next time," he softly told it.

He couldn't risk taking it along and having something happen to it. He looked around his truck a little uneasily as he pushed the sleeves of his yellow raincoat up again, but he didn't spot any golden eyes lurking around in a dark corner. He wasn't really surprised since it had been the same yesterday as well. He did get up really early today though, much earlier than usual.

Wally glanced at the green thing that was still in his wagon and bit his lip. He'd had another nightmare last night, this one even more horrible than the others. He'd dreamt that he'd tried to take care of the green thing, to make his dream come true. Instead of helping it, however, the green thing had shriveled the more he tried to care for it. Wally had been frantic but there wasn't anything he could do for it. Before he knew it, the green thing had completely turned a hideous brown with its beauty forever lost.

The worst part had been when the golden eyes that had been watching all this in shock and horror turned to glare at him with such hatred. Wally's breaths had come in shorter and shorter gasps until he clutched his hand to his chest in panic. He tried to breathe, but the air couldn't make its way through his constricted airways. He wanted to find his inhaler, but he couldn't even move. All he could do was stare at the golden eyes in rising panic as his face turned redder from the lack of air.

"You deserve it," the golden eyes hissed at him with venom. " _You destroyed our world._ "

Wally had woken up in the midst of one of his worst asthma attacks ever and he almost thought that his inhaler wouldn't work since it took much longer than normal for his breathing to settle down. He didn't realize that he'd also been having a panic attack at the same time. When he got up, the sun hadn't even been up yet and the golden eyes were long gone. He had hoped with himself being so frightened that they'd come back, but as the minutes ticked by, they hadn't.

Disappointed, Wally had opened his truck and gone outside to watch the sky turn lighter and lighter as the sun eventually rose. Now as he prepared to leave, he looked around once again and sighed softly to himself. It was better, he tried telling himself. He hated going to the once more populated areas of the city and he wouldn't wish it on anyone. Not his little friend, not even the Boogeyman. So it was better that this time he was alone.

He glanced over at his stash of food and then away again. His stomach felt just as uneasy as the rest of him and he knew that he wouldn't be able to eat anything just now. Taking as deep a breath as he could manage, Wally walked down the ramp that lead from his truck to outside and prepared himself for the worst shopping trip ever.

* * *

A few hours later, golden eyes appeared in the shadows by the plant. Pitch was a little annoyed by the fact that it was still in the wagon, but he saw the damp soil and knew it had been recently watered. He sighed in relief but then looked around as best he could. The golden eyes had flitted around from shadow to shadow, but clearly, the truck was empty. From a shadow on the opposite wall, the golden eyes observed the coveralls that were still in place and the red wagon that had yet to be moved.

Just where had that boy gone?!

With a huff, the golden eyes reappeared in a shadow outside and flitted from shadow to shadow in search of the little miscreant.

Pitch could swear that boy was taking years off his life.

* * *

"How is Jack doing?" North asked Bunny, as he joined Bunny and Sandy in the globe room. Tooth had disappeared into the kitchen to make them all some lunch, declaring that Jack would want something to eat after expending so much energy outside.

"Haven't heard a peep from him since he decided tryin' ta spread his snow further," Bunny said as he turned his worried emerald eyes on North. He and Sandy had told North and Tooth about Jack's worries as soon as they were able, and it hadn't gone over well. North had gone off to let off some steam of his own and Tooth had just about worried a path into the floor before Sandy suggested that he was hungry (not to mention Jack would be too) and she had jumped at the chance to make them lunch.

"Wally's light's been actin' strange too," Bunny added on as he gestured at the globe with a tiny paw.

"What!" North exclaimed in alarm as Sandy nodded frantically in agreement, golden symbols flying above his head at an alarming rate to explain that Wally's light had gone from being so bright to so very dim last night.

North looked over at Wally's light worriedly and saw that it was dimmer than usual.

"It always goes a bit dim when Baby comes ta visit us," Bunny explained, "but this time.. I.. I.. I coulda sworn it stared flickerin' a little. He must be havin' a hard time."

North stared at the light, feeling more helpess now than he ever had.

"It cannot be," he said softly. "Is what happens when.."

"I know," Bunny said sadly. "But it was just a little! It stopped after a minute. It's brighter now than when it was at night. It'll get back ta where it was when Baby Tooth gets back ta him."

The three Guardians stared at the globe silently in worry. None of them wanted to say it, but they all knew that when the lights on the globe started flickering, it meant that the light was close to going out. It meant that the child sat on the edge of disbelief.

* * *

It had been a few hours since Wally had left and the clouds had only grown more numerous. Wally glanced up at the sky uneasily and coughed once again. It was turning out to be a windy day and those were the days he hated going outside on since all the dust blowing around made it hard for him to breathe. He paused as he stood underneath an overhang on a building, that covered a doorway. He had wandered far in those few short hours, pushing himself a little harder than he probably should in order to get everything over with more quickly.

He patted his chest as his raspy breathing settled down a bit. His backpack, thankfully, was a little heavier than when he started out. He had gotten lucky and come across a few abandoned BnL vehicles tucked away in difficult to get to areas. He had always been reluctant to go to them in the past, but with his supplies getting more desperate he had finally caved and gone into them. He'd been surprised to find a bunch of BnL Nutritional Cakes in them and had even been lucky enough to find a lone box of Kremies for his friend.

He tried to turn his thoughts to much happier ones as he thought of his little friend. She had been gone for two nights now, so that meant that she would return soon. It was unusual for her to be gone longer than three nights. Anything more than that and Wally would be worried, she knew. Wally knew that she always tried to make her trips very quick and he was grateful for it. He never really asked her where she went (not that she'd be able to tell him anyway), but she always returned with little trinkets for him. Sometimes there were small gifts or one time she had turned up with Christmas cookies, of all things.

He tried to brighten as he thought of what she could be bringing him now, but he was in the middle of the city and it was hard to think of good things just then. All of his very worst memories took place not too far from the city. His eyes were unwillingly drawn over towards where he'd never wanted to go again. In the distance were tall bridges, where some of the worst of the riots had taken place.

He shivered and quickly looked away. He glanced up at the sky again and saw the clouds were getting darker. He had wanted to go look at more pharmacies to see if he could find any more inhalers, but with the way the sky was looking, he knew he couldn't afford to put it off. He bit his lip in worry since he knew he was so far away from home. He hadn't wanted it to be like those few times when he'd been caught outside in a storm, but it was starting to look a lot like that. Trying his best not to think of it, he hurried out from under the shade of the building.

It wasn't long before a strong gust of wind kicked up a lot of dust into his face, causing Wally to half-gasp/half-choke as he frantically rubbed at his eyes. He hadn't bothered to bring his sunglasses with him, which he knew was turning out to be a huge mistake. He had thought since it was so cloudy out that he wouldn't need them, but he hadn't counted on the wind. Wally coughed harshly and spit dirt out from his mouth while his poor eyes watered, trying to get the dust that had blown into them out.

Of course, that was when he felt the first raindrop land squarely on his head. He paused in mid-cough and looked up at the sky, only to have a raindrop fall right into his eye. He squealed in surprise and rubbed at his poor eye some more as that one raindrop turned into several more. He pulled up his hood and looked around. Even though he was currently surrounded by buildings, there wasn't any that he'd trust in a storm. Some of the buildings had collapsed, while others had holes in them. Many of them had their glass windows broken and none were really suitable as a shelter.

As the rain grew heavier, Wally pulled out his trusty inhaler and took a hit to help settle his breathing a little. He tried to ignore that the little of his pants that were exposed from the raincoat was getting wet and he especially tried not to think about what would happen if the storm grew even worse. He looked around desperately for a place to go, but there was only one place he could think of that was nearby.

Putting his head down and pulling the hood lower over his face, Wally trudged off into the storm.

* * *

Wally jumped a little as a holographic ad suddenly started up in front of himself. He normally avoided them or going anywhere near where they were, but this was the only area he knew of that he'd be able to wait out the storm in. At least until the worst of it had passed.

 _"Too much garbage in your face?"_ it said far too loudly in the mostly utter silence that was his world.

The BnL logo appeared over a large pile of trash in the hologram and to Wally, it felt like the ad was taunting him.

He eeped when he took another few steps and another ad popped up right away.

 _"There's plenty of space out in space!"_

This hologram showed a starliner in outer space. Wally tried to ignore it as he trudged through the storm. It was raining steadily but it wasn't _pouring_ yet. If he could just make it to the shelt -

 _"BnL Starliners leaving every day."_

The sound of the starliners taking off in that ad was drowned out by the rain. All he had to do was avoid the last -

 _"We'll clean up the mess while you're away."_

This last holographic ad showed a number of happy, smiling BnL workers waving to the ships that were leaving the planet. Some even had little shovels perched jauntily over their shoulders and all of them looked extraordinarily happy to be cleaning.

Wally paused to stare at the other workers in the hologram. It had been so long since he'd seen _people,_ it was startling to see them so suddenly -

 _"Wally!"_

Wally gave a huge gasp and spun around, but all he saw were the lingering ads that were shimmering in the rain, their pictures a little fuzzy from all the raindrops.

 _"Do you have to trigger those every time you go past?!"_

Wally rubbed his chest as he stared at the rain with wide eyes. He knew that voice.. He'd heard that voice yell at him so often in the past. It was the man that had scolded him the first time he'd ever met the Easter Bunny. He bit his lip and turned back to where he'd been headed. Looming up ahead he could see the mostly intact structure that had once housed all the BnL cleanup workers.

It was actually pretty ugly. The outside was extremely faded now, but it had been painted to look like the outside of the trash compactors and the large BnL vehicles. It used to have lights on the inside at one time, but those had long since been dead. Wally paused again once he was not far from the outside of it. All he had to do was go a tiny bit inside to get out of the rain and then..

 _"Wally, get to work!"_

 _"Are you reading those useless books again?!"_

 _"I don't care if you lost a tooth, why are you putting it under - ugh! That's disgusting."_

 _"Of course there's a Santa Claus. Can't you see all this wonderful trash he brought you?"_

 _"Sandman? If you want a good dream, just dream of surviving until tomorrow, kid."_

Wally shook his head to try and get the memories of his past to stop. He'd spent so much time here. He'd spent most of his life here, it was the one place he could remember always returning to every day after he was done compacting his trash. Some of the adults helped to look out for him while others outright ignored him. Most of them had been weary and defeated and none of them really had anything kind to say to Wally.

At first, Wally had thought that they were all really tired from compacting trash, so he accepted the lack of kindness as the norm. But now that he was a little older, he realized that a lot of the adults hadn't believed in his dream of cleaning up the world. That look they had.. He was sure it was the look he had that one time, the time when he'd first met his little friend. They had all thought they were going to die in this trash world, not having made any difference.

 _All of them did die.  
_

That thought sent Wally to his knees. His sight was blurry with tears, as he stared at the worker complex that had once been brimming with life. Just the sight of it looking so abandoned and forgotten - it made him feel so _empty._

* * *

"No!" Bunny loudly exclaimed from his perch on the couch as he stared frantically at the globe. "No, no, no!"

A golden question mark appeared above Sandy's head as he looked quizzically at his friend, but it soon turned into a golden exclamation point as North gasped in alarm.

"Wally's light..!" North cried out.

"He's losin' hope," Bunny's voice which had been so loud just a moment ago, now came out as barely a whisper.

All three of the Guardians stared at the globe in dismay as they stared at Wally's light on the globe.

It had started to flicker.


	3. Chapter 3: Little Light of Mine

Author's Note: Life as usual is getting in the way of posting. But finally here is the next chapter! Just a heads up that it is very angsty again. I'm sorry I left you on such a cliffhanger last time but I can't promise I haven't done the same again. Whoops? I wanted to continue on but this chapter is already pretty long. I'll be working on the next chapter but I have no idea when it will be out. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

I also want to thank my reviewers and follows/favs! I hope I haven't caused you too much distress and don't worry, things will be getting lighter as the story progresses but as we know, the story of Wall-E does have its dark moments.

Chapter Three: Little Light of Mine

It had been the longest night of their lives. That was a thought that was unknowingly shared by Wally, the Guardians, and Pitch. The Guardians had sat watching the flickering light all night and it wasn't until dawn finally broke that it went from flickering to just being dim again. It worried them how dim the once bright light had gotten in such a short amount of time. They couldn't even imagine what Wally must be going through. Tooth had fretted more than ever once she had found out about the light and it wasn't until way past dinner that Sandy had finally realized that Jack hadn't come in at all from outside. With a determined look on his face, the golden Guardian had gone outside to brave the cold and soon returned with an exhausted Jack Frost.

He had carefully marched Jack right past the globe room and off to the bedroom at the Pole that had been set aside specifically for Jack. The whole time they were walking, golden symbols appeared above Sandy's head as he shook his finger at Jack, which was Sandy's way of giving Jack a stern talking to. Jack glanced at the symbols from time to time as they walked, but it was obvious he was too tired to really care much about what Sandy had been saying.

"Everywhere else is so hot," Jack murmured once they reached his room and had gone inside. "Do you think spreading snow outwards will affect the weather?"

Sandy had blinked at that and then uneasily thought about little Wally. It was true that hot and cold clashing made storms.. He only hoped that if that was the case then they wouldn't reach poor Wally. Although it was difficult to say what the weather was really like normally. It could be extremely volatile and they wouldn't know. Sandy shrugged at Jack and pointed firmly at Jack's bed. Maybe the rest of the Guardians were being hypocritical since who knows when the last time they all slept was, but Sandy was determined that the youngest of their group would have good dreams.

With a tired sigh, Jack propped his staff against the wall near his bed and crawled under a thin blanket. The window to his room had been left a bit open to let in the cool air. Before Jack could even so much as tell Sandy goodnight, Sandy had hit Jack with a ball of dreamsand. Sandy couldn't help but let out a small smile when he saw a golden Jack hit a full-grown Bunny with a snowball in the face.

The smile slid from his face, however, when he returned back to the globe room to keep an eye on Wally's light. They could only hope that Baby Tooth would get to Wally in time.

* * *

Pitch couldn't believe it. He had spent _hours_ looking for the boy and he hadn't turned up _anywhere._ Not to mention that there had been a terrible storm that had lasted most of the day and that night. It didn't help that he could only peer out of shadows, getting small glimpses of what was around that shadow. That combined with the rain that kept dripping into his eyes made searching for the boy very difficult. His own fatigue at using so much of his power so quickly and for so long eventually made him return to his vantage point in the truck. He took up a position in a shadow where he could see the truck entrance as well as the wagon with the precious plant on board. However, with nothing to do in the meantime except wait and listen to the rain, the golden eyes soon found themselves closing, and Pitch drifted off to an uneasy sleep as he waited for the wayward boy to return.

The sudden blast of light into his vantage point caused Pitch to give a pained hiss as the golden eyes suddenly opened and squinted. Perhaps being in such close view of the truck's entrance hadn't been such a good idea after all. Thankfully the blast of light had stopped as soon as it started with the sound of the truck's doors closing soon after. The golden eyes blinked and looked to see the small form of Wally trudging into the truck finally. The golden eyes had narrowed as they prepared to give Wally the telling off of his life, but then they paused as they took in the sight of him.

Wally pushed the hood off his head as he trudged wearily into the truck after opening and closing the doors after himself. He had dirt and muck smeared on his raincoat and what little of his jeans had been exposed. He left a trail of muddy footprints over to where his hooks were as he pulled off his pack, raincoat, and boots. He hung the raincoat back up in the corner and then dispiritedly dragged his pack over to where he kept his dwindling food supplies. As he did so, he didn't realize that the golden eyes were silently observing him.

Wally began unloading his pack, first by pulling out what looked to be a small ragged blue blanket. He stared down at it a moment before gently setting it aside on the floor and then began pulling out the packets of BnL Nutritional Cakes he had found. He also pulled out the box of Kremies and set them down near the stack of cakes. Thankfully the Kremies and Nutritional Cakes didn't really seem to get old, or if they did, it didn't affect them much. They had never made Wally or his friend sick and he was grateful for them. He couldn't really remember eating much else anyway.

After he unloaded the food from his pack he wandered over to his shelves but didn't get much further than that as he was overtaken by a coughing fit. Wally patted his chest and then reached for his pocket only to discover that he'd left his inhaler in the pocket of his raincoat! Silently berating himself, Wally hastily jabbed at the button for his shelves and watched them rotate around as he continually coughed and tried gasping for air. Finally, the shelves spun around to his medical supplies and he snatched at a random inhaler. He quickly shook it and then jabbed it into his mouth as he activated it. He coughed for much longer than he usually did and it seemed to take him forever to settle his breathing back down that time. He set the inhaler back on the shelf though, since he knew he'd have to change out of his muddy jeans.

Before he did that, he pulled out the few medical supplies he had randomly found around the city the other day. It wasn't really much, but he knew every bit would help, so he tucked the small bits of gauze he'd managed to find in with his other supplies on the shelves. He looked back down into his pack to see if he had anything else interesting in there, but unfortunately, there wasn't anything. He had only gone out for food and the incessant rain had stopped him from doing any other scavenging. At least his supplies weren't as depleted as they were before and it would be a while before he had to go out looking for food again.

With his pack once again empty, Wally trudged back over to where his muddy boots were and deposited his pack down next to them, careful to keep it away from all the mud. He also shucked off his muddy clothes and left them in a pile in a corner with all his other dirtier clothes. He wandered over to where his stack of fresher clothes was and changed into another pair of jeans and t-shirt before he wandered back to the corner with the raincoat and emptied the pockets. He carefully tucked all the tools back into the pockets of his toolbelt and his inhaler into his jeans pocket.

As Pitch watched the boy go about his business, he suddenly realized that the boy hadn't been lost. He must have gone out on an expedition of some sort for supplies and had anticipated the weather might turn, thus the need for the raincoat and not his usual coveralls. It would also explain why the wagon with the compactor on it hadn't gone with him, the boy would hardly need it to gather supplies, after all.

Wally trudged back over to where he'd left the blanket and scooped it up into his arms. He hugged it close to himself and as Pitch continued to watch the boy, he didn't like the look on the boy's face. He had dark smudges under his eyes as though he hadn't gotten any sleep the night before and they didn't seem to have the same spark that they used to. It was as though something had drained all the happiness right out of him. What had happened to him the other day? Had he encountered something?

Still hugging the blanket like a lifeline, Wally went back over to the truck entrance and opened the doors back up. He walked a short distance down the ramp and looked up into the sky, to see that the clouds hadn't gone away. If anything, they seemed to be lingering. Rubbing an eye tiredly, Wally knew that this was actually a good thing since he was all out of drinkable rainwater.

A while later, Wally had dragged all the containers he had to the outside of the truck, just down the ramp. The breeze had started back up and he wheezed and coughed as he moved everything around. Once he had the containers outside, he went back into the truck and picked his blanket back up again. This time he unfolded it and wrapped it around his shoulders.

Pitch didn't like the terribly lost look in the boy's eyes and he didn't like the fact that the boy clung to the blanket like it was something that was so very precious to him. The thing was small, as though it was made for someone much younger and Pitch was starting to wonder just where the boy had gotten it from anyway. With his golden eyes narrowed at the boy, he realized that with all those blasted Guardians so far away and that useless fairy off who-knew-where, it would be up to _him_ to lift the boy's spirits. After all, if the boy completely lost all his hope, faith and _belief_ who knew what would happen then.

Grumbling internally to himself, the golden eyes looked around for something useful. They flitted from shadow to shadow until they locked onto the old VCR/iPod combo and Pitch couldn't help but smirk to himself. Who needed those Guardians anyway? The tricky part, of course, was finding just the right shadow to get into. A single golden eye wound up in the smallest shadow yet and he just barely could stick the tip of his finger out of the shadow to jab at a button on the VCR. With the button pressed, the jaunty tunes of _"Hello Dolly!"_ started playing, the people on the screen happily dancing and singing.

Wally turned to face the screen, the magnifier already in place to help enlarge the tiny iPod screen. He watched the characters dance and he remembered that it was only a few days ago when he'd been happily dancing along with them. Had it really only been a few days? It felt like much longer. Still watching the screen, Wally wandered over to where his thin mattress was still placed in front of the screen and he sat down on it, the blanket still wrapped around his shoulders. If he hadn't been so small, it would look ridiculous for him to do so, but with his small stature, the blanket fit a little snugly, but it still fit.

He watched the people on the screen who seemed to be so happy and he spotted a few of those things in the background.. Trees. He remembered the Boogeyman telling him the other day that if he cared for the green thing, their world could have those things.. Those.. trees. And the deep green on the ground too, that grass. He had been so happy at first when he had heard that, but now..

Now..

He couldn't help but wonder if it would be worth it.

What was the point of making the world beautiful if there wasn't anyone else to enjoy it?

The Boogeyman seemed to be stuck in the shadows and Wally hadn't heard from the Easter Bunny, Santa, Sandman or any of the Guardians in so long, he was starting to wonder if they were even still out there. Not to mention his friend was taking longer than usual to get back.

What if she'd been caught in the storm and -

With a shudder, Wally drew the blanket more tightly around his shoulders.

Golden eyes flitted to a larger shadow and focused on Wally as the fear came suddenly to them.

 _I don't want to be all alone! I don't want to wind up like_ them.

Pitch cleared his throat as the golden eyes darted to a shadow that was closer to Wally.

"You know," he started uneasily. He _really_ didn't know how to relate to kids. It was one of the reasons he avoided speaking to Wally very much. He knew how to frighten them, how to get them to imagine their worst fears come true.. But reassuring them was far out of his comfort zone. Once again he found himself internally cursing the blasted Guardians for being stuck in such a useless place as the North Pole. "You did a good job of taking care of the plant the other day. I saw that you watered it. You did a good job of making sure it had just the right amount of water."

Emerald eyes tore themselves away from the iPod screen to look over at the golden ones he just noticed were there.

"R-really?" Wally asked, his voice much raspier than usual. He rubbed absently at his chest. Ever since the other day, he'd been feeling a little off-balance. Usually, his asthma didn't bother him that much, but now it seemed to be getting a little worse. He didn't realize of course, that his emotional state had something to do with it too.

"Yes," Pitch replied a little over-enthusiastically. "In fact, I'm certain it won't be any time at all until the world looks just like it does in that movie. Wouldn't that be nice?"

Wally looked back from the golden eyes to the iPod screen, and his lips turned downward in a frown as his eyes looked sad.

"There's no one here to make it beautiful for," Wally sadly told the eyes. "I'm all alone."

Pitch almost snorted indignantly at that, since what was _he_ _,_ chopped liver? But he refrained from saying anything like that since he knew that berating the boy wouldn't be a wise thing to do.

"Don't you want to make the world beautiful for yourself?" Pitch asked Wally curiously. He always seemed so intent on doing so before. What had changed his mind?

Wally gave a half-hearted shrug at that and looked down at the ground.

The silence stretched out and the silent _What was the point?_ seemed to hang in the air.

Pitch sighed deeply.

"Wally," he said and Wally startled at that, unaware that the Boogeyman even knew his name. "You already know that the world is a harsh and cruel place. Terrible things have happened here, and even more could happen. No one knows what the future will bring. But what I do know, is that you hold the key to saving it. You alone can care for that plant. You alone can make this world as pretty as your movie. You ask why would you want to do it when you're all alone? Well, why wouldn't you? You can experience a world of beauty, a clean or at least, a cleaner world. You'd have a place where you could breathe easier. Even if you are the only person left, why wouldn't you want to create a world where you can experience that? You alone have managed to survive. You deserve to see the world as it was meant to be. _You deserve this._ "

Pitch heard a sniffle and wondered if he had hit the mark. Did the child feel like he didn't deserve a world like that? He couldn't even begin to imagine what all of this was doing to the boy. He himself was having a hard time dealing with it, and he'd been alive for centuries. This boy had barely had a chance to live before his entire world fell apart.

Pitch sighed softly to himself.

What more could he say?

Tears fell down Wally's cheeks as he stared down at the ground unseeingly. He had never had anyone _ever_ tell him that he deserved better. That he deserved a clean world. He never even had anyone tell him it was possible! He always thought it was possible when he was little, but that was only because he was little and didn't know any better. All the adults ever did was yell at him and tell him to get to work. They never said anything to him about the world being nicer. All they did was go to work day in and day out because that was what they were supposed to do. Then when everything went wrong and everyone stopped working, no one paid him any mind. They were all too busy trying to keep themselves alive to worry about a child.

"..I.. I.. w-wish you could be here w-with me," Wally sobbed brokenly, as he drew up his legs to his chest and buried his face in his knees. "I.. _h-hate_ being alone.."

The golden eyes looked touched for a moment before they very sadly sighed.

"I wish I could be there too," Pitch whispered to the child. "But you know you aren't truly alone. You have your little friend and you have.. you have.. the Guardians."

Pitch would never in a million years admit to saying that out loud. It almost pained him to admit it to the boy, but he couldn't have Wally completely give up hope. He couldn't have Wally lose the last of his belief. Even if it had been what he craved in the past (and what a fool he had been), he knew it would be the end of himself and the Guardians.

Wally turned his head to the side in confusion. He'd read stories about the Easter Bunny and Santa (and now he finally had that section of the book about Jack Frost) and the Easter Bunny had told him all about the Sandman and Tooth Fairy, and the few kids that had been around when Wally was younger all knew about the Boogeyman, but Wally had never heard them referred to as the Guardians.

"..G..Guardians..?" Wally wheezed as he sniffled. He lifted his head up a little bit and wiped his eyes.

"The Easter Bunny, Sandman, Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus and that.. that.. Jack.. Frost.." Pitch trailed off awkwardly at the end as he remembered at the last moment he was talking to a child and calling that blasted Jack Frost names probably wouldn't help anything right at that moment.

"Why are they called Guardians?" Wally asked curiously as he wiped more of his tears away.

"Didn't they ever tell you?" asked a baffled Pitch.

Wally thought back to when he'd first met the Easter Bunny forever ago and remembered when the Easter Bunny had told him about the other Guardians. But the Easter Bunny hadn't called them Guardians. He just told Wally their names.

Wally shook his head.

If Pitch was able to at that moment, he would've smacked himself in the forehead.

 _Really?!_

"They are called The Guardians of Childhood," Pitch explained. "They each guard a special quality in children: Hope, Dreams, Memories, Wonder, and Fun. They are the ones that bring joy to life. They're the ones that bring all the goodness."

Unspoken, of course, was that the Boogeyman only brought fear and nightmares. The Boogeyman never represented anything good.

"..Are they still out there?" Wally asked after a pause.

"I believe so," a surprised Pitch replied.

"But you don't know," Wally said sadly after a beat. "They could've gotten hurt from the storms. They could've..."

Wally trailed off after that and looked back down.

 _Ah,_ Pitch realized that was part of what was bothering the boy. He thought the Guardians had perished like everyone else. Didn't he know how foolish that was? They were the Guardians! As long as one little particle of the boy believed in them they'd always be around. Thankfully (or sometimes, in the case of distressed children, not so thankfully) they were trapped at the North Pole. The worst thing that could happen to them there was if Jack Frost got too bored and caused an avalanche.

"..Do.. you want me to check?" Pitch finally asked awkwardly.

Wally gasped and sat straight up as he stared at the golden eyes.

"Y-you can do that?!" he exclaimed in excitement.

* * *

Sandy straightened up in his seat as two wishes came to him. He waved frantically at the others to catch their attention.

"What is it?" Bunny asked Sandy tensely. They'd been awake who knew how long, just staring at little Wally's light on the globe. It had stopped flickering, only to be so very dim and then after a little while it had started flickering again. They were all extremely worried about what was going on with the poor child.

Golden dreamsand symbols appeared above Sandy's head as the others tried to puzzle out what Sandy was saying.

"Ah.." Bunny said as he tilted his head at the symbols. Usually, he and the others were pretty good about interpreting them, but he had no clue what Sandy was trying to say right now.

"He said that Wally's wishing he wasn't alone," Jack Frost said a little coolly as he strolled into the globe room. "And that someone else was wishing they could be there too."

The four Guardians all jumped guiltily as they turned as one to face Jack. They had thought to spare him the worry (and hopefully avoid his belief going down too), but now realized that was pretty close to impossible what with them all being stuck together at the North Pole. In truth, Sandy had been hoping that by the time Jack had woken up that Wally's light would be better and they could pretend that nothing had happened.

"When were you going to tell me that his light was going out?" Jack frowned at the Guardians. "Aren't I a Guardian too?"

"Of course you are sweetie," Tooth rushed to reassure him as she stood, her wings fluttering in her nervousness more out of habit since she hadn't been able to fly in years.

"Then.. why?" Jack asked with a sigh as he plopped down in a chair.

"We did not want to worry you," North admitted guiltily. "You already have much on your mind."

Jack ran a hand through his hair in frustration. He opened his mouth to reply but was cut off by Bunny's excited shout.

"It stopped flickerin'!" Bunny exclaimed as he hopped in his spot on the couch and pointed at the globe with a little paw. "Wally's light stopped flickerin' and it got a little brighter!"

The rest of the Guardians all had smiles of relief on their faces, but Jack was still frowning at them.

"If you guys kept this from me, what else have you been hiding?" he asked them accusingly.

"We ain't hiding anything from ya," Bunny exclaimed in irritation. "It was just that one thing!"

"Oh right," Jack retorted in disbelief. "I'm just supposed to - "

"Well, well, well.." a smooth voice interrupted silkily. "I leave you all alone for a few years and now look at you. It isn't becoming of the _Guardians_ to be at each other's throats."

"Pitch!" Tooth exclaimed in horror. "What are you doing here?!"

"Ya ratbag!" Bunny exclaimed as he straightened up to his full and unimpressive height. He tried to look intimidating, but even though he was glaring fiercely, it looked about as intimidating as a kitten batting at a piece of string. His fierce look, however, was soon replaced with one of confusion. "What.. wait.. _How_ are ya here?!"

"Is right," North frowned at the golden eyes he noticed that were in the shadow of the globe. "We cannot use our powers. How are you able to?"

"Well, despite all of you only having a few believers to keep you alive," Pitch said as the golden eyes practically smirked at them, "I have _plenty_ of fear at my disposal."

Tooth gave a horrified gasp at that.

"Wally!" she cried out as she stared from the golden eyes to Wally's light on the globe. "No wonder his light almost went out!"

"..What?" Pitch asked in confusion.

"You.. you.." Bunny narrowed his eyes at the golden eyes. "Wally's the only kid left! He's the only _person_ left on the world and you've been scaring the wits outta him?!"

Golden eyes narrowed right back at Bunny's emerald and Jack could swear that those eyes almost looked.. offended.

"Contrary to what you all believe, that child doesn't need me to spread fear," Pitch hissed angrily at Bunny. "Nor is he my only source of it!"

A golden question mark appeared above Sandy's head, but he glanced at the other Guardians as he did so. He had a suspicion on where that other fear had been coming from.

"'What are we going to do if Jack stops believing too?' 'What if I never get back to my googies?' 'What if I bury them all in snow?!'" Pitch mockingly quoted various fears of the Guardians back at them. "I _always_ know what a person's worst fear is. We're the only ones left on this blasted planet! You think I couldn't hear your fears too?"

Sandy's eyes widened at that and he suddenly realized who that second wisher had been. But that wisher.. They'd been wishing to be with Wally too. Did Pitch actually want to help him?

Jack swallowed the lump that had risen from having his worst fear called out like that. He glanced at the others, but they seemed too intent on glaring at the golden eyes to have concentrated too hard on what those fears had actually been.

"Then.. ah.. what are you doing here?" Jack asked him. When the golden eyes focused on him he gave them one of his trademark smirks. "Did you miss us?"

Pitch wanted to reply with a biting remark at that, but instead, he just sighed. Fighting with the Guardians just wasn't the same as it used to be. Not since everyone else on the planet had perished. All the desolation and isolation had kind of taken all the fun out of things. Not to mention he did have a promise to keep.

"Tell me," Pitch replied instead, "Exactly how long have you been trapped here?"

North scratched his head at that.

"Is been years since our powers have gone kaput," he finally admitted.

"And since that happened, have you ever.. oh, I don't know, seen anyone else?" the golden eyes asked them pointedly.

"..Nooo.." Tooth admitted as she drew the word out. "Just Baby Tooth."

"And did you think, perhaps, that.. just _maybe_ it might be hard to believe in something that hasn't been seen for years?" Pitch said exasperatedly. Honestly, were they all really this dense?!

Tooth's eyes went wide and she covered her mouth.

"Wally's losing his belief in us!" she squealed in alarm as her eyes frantically sought out his lonely light on the globe.

"That still don't explain what yer doin' here," Bunny said to Pitch suspiciously.

"..He asked me if I'd come to check on you," Pitch finally muttered after an awkward pause.

Everyone gave a huge gasp at that and gaped at Pitch.

What!?

* * *

Golden eyes appeared in a shadow in the truck much later. The merry sounds of _"Hello Dolly!"_ were the only sounds in the truck, aside from the steady drum of what Pitch assumed was more rain. The golden eyes, which normally would appear to be very frightening in the shadow were softened by a bone-deep weariness that told Pitch he wouldn't be able to play the messenger for a while. He was lucky that he was able to do as much as he did.

The golden eyes looked around what part of the truck they could from their vantage point of being in a shadow on the wall, and soon he spotted little Wally as a lump on the mattress, his wheezy breathing audible from even where Pitch was. The golden eyes watched the boy for a moment. He must have exhausted himself from all that crying and then had become thoroughly overexcited once he had learned that Pitch could see if the Guardians were still alive or not. It was no wonder the boy had fallen asleep.

The golden eyes flitted over to a shadow near the mattress. They watched Wally's sleeping face for a moment, the boy looking much younger in his sleep. Pitch used the last of his energy as the eyes disappeared from the shadow for a moment, to be replaced by slender gray fingers. The fingers reached out and gently brushed Wally's hair, and Wally sighed in his sleep, as the nightmares that had been starting to form were chased away. The fingers soon retreated back into the shadow and the golden eyes reappeared. They started to close tiredly as Pitch lost his battle with sleep himself.

"They're fine," he murmured sleepily to Wally. "As annoying as ever, but fine."

A few hours later, Wally's emerald eyes opened and he sat up as he sleepily rubbed an eye. The little blue blanket had somehow moved from around his shoulders and he had been clutching it in his sleep. He looked down at it sadly, as memories threatened to overwhelm him again. He had taken it in a moment of desperation when he had been more alone than ever, and at the time it had comforted him. Now, however, it just reminded him of times he'd never get back again. It reminded him of when the other workers had been around, and those thoughts naturally went back to the last of humanity Wally had ever seen..

Wally shook his head almost violently as he forced the thoughts to the back of his mind. He let out a half-choked sob that turned into a cough. That cough was followed by another and soon Wally had to fish out his inhaler. He was grateful he had thought to grab it before he'd laid down because he didn't see any golden eyes around to rescue him. Soon he'd triggered his inhaler and after several long wheezy minutes where Wally struggled with the simple task of breathing, the medicine finally kicked in.

Wally breathed a small sigh of relief. He'd never admit it even to himself, but with his attacks seeming to be a little worse, he couldn't help but fear that someday it might be one attack too many. Someday his medicine might not work. Someday he'd..

The golden eyes had woken up upon hearing the sob/coughing fit and were gazing at Wally in some amount of concern. He seemed so fragile to be all by himself. So young to be left to his own devices. Pitch somewhat wished he could drag the boy through the shadows and take him away from this life, as the Guardians had suggested once they'd gotten over their shock. They had been thoroughly disappointed to hear that Pitch didn't have enough power to do that. He'd reminded the Guardians if he could do that, then he'd have left the shadows himself ages ago.

Bah, he was getting sentimental.

Pitch supposed that's what happened when your life depended upon the belief of a small boy, a boy whose belief was as fragile as his breathing. Once the boy's breathing had settled back down, Pitch heard the small fear that was almost whispered to him. The fear that had become more prevalent as Wally's asthma attacks became more frequent. The golden eyes narrowed a little, but they refused to acknowledge the validity of the fear.

It was, after all, a very real concern.

Instead, Pitch cleared his throat and Wally let out a startled gasp.

"As requested, I sought out the Guardians," Pitch told Wally. "And in return, they asked me to give you this."

Wally blinked as the golden eyes that were in a shadow near the mattress vanished, only to be replaced moments later by the very edge of gray fingertips pushing something bright white and square through the shadow. Wally reached out hesitantly and his fingers brushed the square, only to feel that it was a paper of some sort. He gripped the edge of a corner and gently tugged it away from the Boogeyman's fingers.

Soon the golden eyes reappeared and watched the boy unfold the paper that the Guardians had all but demanded he deliver. He had balked at essentially being ordered around since he was the _Nightmare King,_ he didn't take orders! Bunny had resorted to threats and Tooth had turned to pleading, but it was Sandy and Jack that had eventually convinced Pitch to deliver the note. Sandy had shown the golden image of a small boy and then a broken heart to demonstrate the boy losing all belief, while Jack had reminded Pitch that if Wally lost all his belief, then not only would the Guardians would disappear, so would Pitch.

It hadn't taken long for Pitch to reluctantly agree to deliver the letter. When Pitch had taken the note into the shadows, he remembered that the annoying fairy had taken off and hadn't returned so Pitch had inquired about her. He'd been surprised to learn that she had gone to visit the North Pole already and had already left more than a day ago. With how fast she flew, the trip should have only taken her several hours, not several _days._

Jack had been especially upset to hear that Baby Tooth hadn't made it back to Wally yet, but Pitch had brushed off his concerns by saying that there'd been stormy weather and she must have been held up by that. Not realizing he'd put a damper on the Guardians' already low spirits, Pitch had soon departed afterward, the exhaustion of using so much of his power taking its toll on him. He'd left while he still could since he did _not_ want to be stuck at the North Pole with all those do-gooders.

Wally unfolded the small square paper to see a hastily scribbled note. There were five sets of different handwriting on it and he read the note with wide eyes.

 _Wally,_

 _As long as you believe in us, we will be here for you. We might not be able to physically be there for you, but we are there with you in spirit. We all love you and we know that you are strong enough to get through this terrible time. You're such a special little boy. We know your dreams of a clean world will come true, and we are so proud of you for trying to make it happen. Whenever your doubts become too strong, all you have to do is look at the Tooth Fairy's little helper who has decided to be your friend and help look after you._

 _Love,_

 _The Guardians_

Wally traced his fingers over the names that had been individually scrawled under _The Guardians_ and he smiled at the one lone ink paw print he saw underneath all the signatures. Wally's emerald eyes looked over the note a few more times before they lingered on the part about the Tooth Fairy's helper. He had no idea that his little friend had been a helper of the Tooth Fairy's. He hadn't ever questioned what she was, he just knew that she was.

A wobbly smile appeared on his face as he read the letter one more time and he absently wiped the tears away from his eyes. As he read the letter, he felt an almost unfamiliar warmth spread through him.

Someone _cared_ about him.

Maybe he wasn't as alone as he thought.

* * *

"Look!" Tooth squealed excitedly as she pointed at the globe.

"I can't believe Pitch did it," Bunny muttered to himself as he stared at Wally's light on the globe.

Slowly but surely it was growing brighter, much brighter than it had been just moments ago.

Even Jack had smiled at the sight of the brighter light as he brushed his own fears away for a moment. But his smile had faded almost as quickly as it had come.

Where was Baby Tooth? Why hadn't she made it to Wally yet?

* * *

After several long minutes of staring at the note, Wally had eventually folded it back up and placed it on his shelves with the rest of his collection for safekeeping. He tucked it in with his books, placing the note in the pages of the leatherbound book he had recently acquired, putting it at the beginning of the section for Jack Frost, just to make sure that he wouldn't lose it.

The steady thrum of the rain on the outside of the truck caught Wally's attention and his smile grew wider as he wandered over to the entrance as he pulled the lever to open the door. The sight of all of his containers full of water made him grin happily and he looked over at his pile of dirtier clothes. With a shrug, Wally shucked the clothes he had on and then scooped them up along with the pile of his dirtiest clothes. He went outside to the ramp and laid out his shirts and pants flat on the ramp so that the rain beat down on them. Soon Wally was as drenched as his clothes and he tilted his face up towards the rain, careful to keep his eyes closed so he didn't get water in them.

Golden eyes had moved to a shadow closer to the door and stared in disbelief at the boy who was outside in the rain and seemed to be rather happy about it. From what he had seen earlier that morning, Wally had a terrible time when he was out in the rain the other day, so why was he so happy about it now? Pitch huffed as he watched Wally, but even he couldn't help feeling a little lighter at seeing the boy so much happier now.

That still didn't stop the irritation that flared up as he watched the boy, who appeared to be washing in the rain. He definitely saw the boy rubbing the dirt off his arms and face as the rain completely drenched him.

"Are you trying to catch pneumonia?!" the reprimand burst forth from Pitch before he could even think about it. "Get back in the truck this instant!"

Wally had frozen at Pitch's shout and paused from rubbing a particularly stubborn dirt spot off his arm to stare over at the golden eyes that were glaring at him from the truck. The glare from the golden eyes intensified and Wally gave them a sheepish, yet impish grin as he hurried back into the truck. It didn't take long for him to start shivering and he ignored the muttering he could hear coming from the shadow that the eyes occupied. Soon he had dried himself off as best he could and changed into his last pair of clean clothes. Wally ran his fingers through his damp hair as he watched the rain steadily come down outside.

The rest of the day had passed quietly as the rain continued on. With neither Pitch or Wally wanting to venture out into the rain, they both stayed inside where Wally alternated between watching his VHS tapes and reading his books. He read out loud from a book of fairytales to Pitch, his reading very hit or miss, with Pitch often having to help Wally sound out unfamiliar words. Wally had been taught to read very long ago, but only as a form of survival. It was just very basic things since a BnL Cleanup Worker didn't have to know much. All they really needed was a basic understanding of tools and to learn how to compact trash without hurting yourself. Wally had been one of the few that had developed an interest in reading the books of long ago and his interest hadn't been encouraged.

In fact, he'd often been scolded for bringing books into the BnL Worker Complex since the area around his bed was getting cluttered. If it was one thing he had learned, it was how to be neat. So that was why even though his collecting had taken on a life of its own, he'd set everything up so that it was more or less orderly. Everything he had in the truck had its own special place.

The reading of the fairytales had been interesting since he often stopped and asked Pitch what certain words had meant. His eyes had shone with a light they had been lacking as he imagined far off places full of magic and wonder. After Wally had eaten his dinner later on that evening, he soon found himself lulled to sleep by the merry tunes of his favorite movie. Before he fell asleep, he found himself wondering what it would be like to live in a world like his fairy tales.

His last thought before he fell asleep was that he wished his little friend had been there to enjoy the day with him. He knew she would have enjoyed the stories as much as the Boogeyman.

* * *

The next day an amused Wally heard grumbling about how it was far too light outside. He had just opened up the truck's entrance and apparently the Boogeyman didn't appreciate it. He was surprised that the Boogeyman was still there since he usually disappeared sometime during the night. He looked outside to see that the clouds had finally passed and the sun was beating down as it usually did. Wally nodded to himself and then moved his clothes that were on the ramp over so that he could lug some of his containers of water back into the truck.

Unfortunately, that took much longer than he thought it would since the water containers were pretty heavy when they were full. It didn't help that he had to stop and rest quite a bit too. Eventually, however, he got all the containers inside and set off to the side of the truck near his food supplies. He set his lone pot on the hotplate full of water and set it to start boiling. He looked at the pot and stared at it thoughtfully for a minute. This was a task that his friend usually helped him with. She would sit in the truck and keep an eye on the pot and then come warn him when the water had been sufficiently boiled.

Wally heard more grumbling and he looked over at the golden eyes that were squinting against the bright light. With a smile, Wally wandered over to the shadow they were in. After Wally told the Boogeyman his plan, the grumbling had only increased, but the Boogeyman had reluctantly agreed. It had taken puppy dog eyes on Wally's part and him saying how _thirsty_ he was for the Boogeyman to finally cave, but he eventually did.

So that was how Wally found himself all suited up in his coveralls with the pockets of his toolbelt filled with its usual supplies and his inhaler, his boots stomping down the ramp of his truck as he pulled his little red wagon behind himself while the Boogeyman kept watch over his hotplate. Wally ignored the grumblings of how his truck was going to burn down since that was why Wally had asked the Boogeyman to keep watch over the pot.

The sun was fully risen and shining brightly overhead by the time that Wally had made it to the spot where he had decided to compact garbage that day and as he began loading up his compacter with garbage and having it spit out its little cubes, Wally felt himself relax in a way that he hadn't for the last few days. He didn't realize it, but getting out of his routine had bothered him more than he realized. With renewed vigor, Wally continued to compact the garbage as he started another skyscraper. He was determined that this one would be taller than the last.

Several hours later, Wally found himself high up in the air as he panted. He had to stop in his trek up his garbage skyscraper to catch his breath. He had bent over with his hands on his knees and went to straighten back up when suddenly something careened into him with enough force to knock him back into a garbage wall of the skyscraper. He felt a spike of fear before he registered the high-pitched chirping and he realized that his little friend had finally returned. He could feel her soft feathers burrowed into his neck and he patted her gently.

"I'm ok," he told her softly, his voice raspy from his trek and his small scare.

After a long moment, she finally pulled away from his neck and flew in front of his face as she looked at him with teary amethyst eyes. She tweeted to him that she had _tried_ to be as fast as she could, but she had been bogged down by so many storms and -

Wally gave her a half-smile as he listened to her tweeting, not really understanding a thing she was trying to tell him. He had a lot to tell her as well, and he wasn't sure where to begin. For starters, how would he explain how he and the Boogeyman were sort of.. Kind of.. Well, that they got along now? Not to mention he had to tell her all about the green thing! And that he had found her a whole box of Kremies, he knew she would be excited about that.

Baby Tooth paused in mid-tweet to let out a loud chirp as she looked around frantically. She had carried her bag all this way and where had it..?! She finally found it perched on top of Wally's trash compactor, where it had fallen when she tackled Wally. She hastily flew down to it and landed next to it on the trash compactor as she chirped at him and patted the bag that was tied shut.

Wally looked down at it curiously. It was a little larger than most of the other things she brought him and it was certainly more worn and ragged than the others. It was smeared with dirt but the bag remained untorn. Wally decided to take a seat near his red wagon and with fumbling fingers, he pulled the bag into his lap and untied the end, which had been tied shut in a big bow. He was surprised when he opened the bag to reveal several things, two of which immediately stood out to Wally. He had the bottle of water open faster than Baby Tooth could blink and took several long gulps before his coughing forced him to stop.

He managed to put the cap back on before he spilled the water and had to use his inhaler so he could stop coughing and breathe normally. He gave his little friend a sheepish smile when she tweeted with concern at him.

"Sorry," he said guiltily to her.

He helped her to a little of the water too and then opened the strange plastic square that he saw. It made a funny noise as he pried one end open and saw something square and white inside. He pulled one of his gloves off and poked at it with a finger to find it felt strange but soft. He reached his hand inside the plastic square and tugged on the white square inside. To his surprise, it split right in the middle and half of the thing came out of the plastic square. He stared at it in confusion. He saw it wasn't just one white thing, it was two white things held together somehow. He pried it apart to see that there was a strange mixture of light brown and purple on the inside. He put the two halves back together and then glanced at his little friend.

"What is it?" he asked her.

Baby Tooth just gaped at Wally for a moment, since who didn't know what a _sandwich_ was?! But then she realized that Wally had probably never seen one before, or at least, not for a very long time. She recalled that he usually ate those dreadful BnL Nutritional Cakes and that she hardly ever saw anything perishable around. Of course he wouldn't know what to do with it.

She gave him a kind smile and then flew over to land on his knee. She plucked a small corner of the sandwich off and then gobbled it down to demonstrate to Wally that it was alright to eat. She made sure to keep the smile on her face, but the truth was it had taken her so long to get there that the sandwich was a little mushy by now and not exactly at its best. She supposed it was better than what Wally had been eating though.

Trusting his friend, Wally took a big bite of the sandwich. The texture felt strange and the inside of it was oddly sticky and sweet. A smile lit up his face and soon he had the rest of the sandwich gobbled down. To his delight, he found several more of the soft things in the plastic squares tucked inside the bag. He pulled out the next treasure, which was a small golden bag. This too was tied shut, so he opened it and peered inside. He was disappointed when all he saw was what appeared to be sand. He tilted the bag towards his hand and the shrill tweet of his friend distracted him.

"..Huh?" Wally half-asked, half-stated in confusion.

He couldn't understand why she was suddenly so frantic -

Some of the golden dreamsand had poured from the bag and as soon as it touched his fingers, he felt his eyes drift shut against their will. He slumped and fell over sideways, one arm dangling off the edge of the path he'd created on the skyscraper as a golden dream formed over his head. The bag had fallen near his other hand and thankfully not much of the golden sand had spilled out.

Baby Tooth flew over to it and hastily tied it shut again before she looked over at Wally worriedly. For a moment she had been certain that he was going to fall off the edge of the skyscraper. She patted her chest with a wing in a move oddly reminiscent of when Wally did it to try and calm his breathing. She breathed out a sigh of relief and then checked to make sure the other bag was alright as well. She saw that it had fallen out of Wally's lap but otherwise looked fine. She looked over at Wally and smiled at him fondly, seeing that he was sound asleep with his wraparound sunglasses askew. She wandered over to the collar of his coveralls and snuggled in by the joint of his neck and shoulder. She closed her eyes wearily and settled in for a long nap. She knew it would be hours before Wally eventually woke up from his dreamsand sleep.

* * *

By the time Wally had woken up again, it was afternoon. He sat up and sleepily rubbed an eye, nearly knocking his wraparound sunglasses off his face. He adjusted them and looked around in confusion. Why was he up so high? He heard a chirp in his ear and a big grin spread on his face as he remembered that his little friend was there with him. He could feel her uncurling from where she had fallen asleep and he gently reached a finger to where he felt her and pet her on the head. She, in return, crawled out from under his coveralls and flew down by the bag she had carried all that way. She eagerly patted it with a wing and Wally remembered that he hadn't seen all the bag's contents yet.

He looked down at the bag, but then looked at his skyscraper. From where he was it looked like he was high in the air, but really in comparison to the other skyscrapers, he had hardly begun. Feeling a little guilty, he gathered up the empty plastic square that had once housed the soft sticky thing he had eaten and the water bottle. He put both of those things along with the bag next to his trash compactor in his red wagon. Next, he reached down for the golden bag, but his friend tweeted in alarm and made sure she tugged on the strings to make sure the bag was closed first. Then, just to be on the safe side she picked up the string in her beak and flew it into the wagon herself.

"I'll look at the rest later," Wally assured her with amusement as he stood and stretched.

He wasn't sure why, but he'd had the most fantastic dream. He also felt completely rested for once, instead of tiredly waking up after a night filled with broken sleep. He glanced at the golden bag and wondered if it had anything to do with the Sandman. That would explain why he'd fallen asleep so quickly. Making sure he had everything in his wagon, Wally grabbed the handle of his wagon and then started to pull it carefully back down his skyscraper. After assuring herself that Wally's trinkets were alright, Baby Tooth flew up to sit on Wally's shoulder as she so often did.

Wally had wandered off from his skyscraper and had started rummaging in the trash in his meandering way. He had already lost so much trash compacting time, and it was more or less the time of day that he'd stop for a break or stop to find more treasures in the trash. He had wandered very far off from where he had originally started and was examining a strange furry creature of some sort when he heard a loud.. rumbling?

Wally blinked and looked up. The sky above him was pretty clear, but he still couldn't explain what the noise was. It sounded similar to the thunder from storms but it was still different somehow. His little friend tweeted her confusion and Wally paused as he looked all around. He dropped the handle of his little red wagon and set the furry thingy he had been looking at down nearby. To his friend's alarm, Wally began to walk towards where he thought the noise was coming from.

"I have to see," Wally said simply to her, but she was having none of it.

She flew into the air by Wally's collar and tugged on it as hard as she could. Wally gently waved his hand nearby her to get her to stop and he shot her a look behind his wraparound shades.

"I'll be fine," he told her. "It's probably nothing."

Baby Tooth had been forced to let go of Wally's collar as she dodged out of the way of Wally's hand. She had been forcibly reminded of a time so _very_ long ago of an impetuous Jack Frost who had wandered off one terrible Easter night to investigate something strange. Baby Tooth's face fell as she remembered just how well _that_ turned out, but soon it changed into one of determination as she flew after Wally.

She wasn't going to let things turn out bad this time.

* * *

Sandy was sitting on the couch by Bunny in the globe room still, as he cast an amused look around the room. It had taken him a few minutes after all the excitement died down to realize that he didn't actually know when the last time they had all slept was. Wally and Jack were their only believers and none of the Guardians could actually leave the Pole, so they had little to do. It was easy to forget about their own needs in favor of watching out for Wally on the globe or else making sure that Jack was happy.

They had always put the needs of the kids first, so it was only natural to want to do so now. But Sandy had noticed what the others had not: the dark circles under the Guardians' eyes and the litter of mugs and remains of snacks around the room that indicated that they had all spent _far_ too long there. So Sandy did what he did best, he formed a ball of dreamsand and threw it in Bunny's face.

Bunny had let out a startled "Wha?!" before he fell over with golden carrots floating above his head.

North had chuckled merrily at that and had started to tell Sandy that was a good one when he, too, had been hit with dreamsand. Tooth had started to look nervous and insist that Wally needed them to look out for him still, but Sandy just shook his finger at her maternally before he knocked her out too.

Soon he was surrounded by a sleeping pile of Guardians and a Jack Frost that had a huge grin on his face at the sight of them. He hadn't been hit with dreamsand since he was the only one there who'd actually slept the night before.

"They're going to be mad when they wake up," Jack said teasingly to Sandy, but the huge grin on his face told Sandy that he was more amused than worried about it.

Sandy shrugged and then let out a small yawn. He was pretty sleepy himself, but someone had to stay awake to be with Jack. Sandy watched Wally's light on the globe. It was shining brightly now, though not quite as brightly as it did when Baby Tooth was there.

Jack's smile faded a bit when he looked over at the dark corner where Pitch had been. He hadn't realized that _Pitch Black_ of all people had been with little Wally. None of the Guardians had spared Pitch much thought, if any, over the years they'd been stuck at the Pole. They didn't know where Pitch had wandered off to or if he'd been stuck out in the elements. Jack remembered though, that Pitch had his own globe just like the Guardians'. He'd be able to see Wally's light and had probably gone off to investigate.

Jack shivered as he remembered Pitch saying how he always knew a person's darkest fear. Had he sensed Wally's fear? Wally was probably pretty scared when Baby Tooth wasn't there with him. It probably shone out to Pitch like a beacon in the darkness. They'd all been shocked when Pitch had confessed that he'd only come to the Pole because Wally had asked him to.

When Jack and the Guardian's had finally realized that Pitch was able to use his powers, they'd all but begged Pitch to grab Wally and bring him to the Pole. Pitch had finally grown tired of the cacophony and snapped at them that he _couldn't._ The angry glare from the golden eyes had been enough to finally get them all to quiet down, but not enough to get them to stop talking. Tooth had finally been the one to beg Pitch to send a note to Wally from them and Pitch had let out a huge sigh as though it was _such_ an inconvenience to him, but he had agreed pretty quickly.

Jack frowned a little as he thought. Was Pitch just as worried as the rest of them about Wally's belief fading? Pitch had always been so indifferent about it, but.. what had changed now? Maybe it was because Wally was the only person (as far as they knew) that was still alive out there. After all, Sandy had told them when people's wishes had become less and less until he only heard Wally's wishes along with a mysterious wisher, the Guardians and Jack. Had the mystery wisher been _Pitch_ all this time?

Who knew that Pitch Black even had any wishes?

"Can we trust Pitch?" Jack asked suddenly out of the blue.

Sandy gave Jack a startled look since his eyes had been starting to close as he gazed at the globe. He'd had one long blink too many and was on the verge of joining the rest of the Guardians in a nap when Jack had spoken. He shook the sleepiness off as he considered Jack's words. He gave Jack a so-so gesture and a small shrug.

Jack's frown deepened as he tried to figure out what Sandy was saying.

"Uh.. so.. not completely, but.. kinda?" Jack guessed. "Maybe?"

Sandy nodded in agreement at Jack's guess. Golden dreamsand symbols formed over his head to indicate that Pitch obviously didn't want anything to happen to Wally either, so as far as that went they could probably trust Pitch. Unsaid was that in any other matters they probably couldn't trust Pitch as far as they could throw him.

"Right," Jack said a little uneasily.

He didn't really like it that Pitch was the only one who could be there for Wally. He wished more than anything that he could fly farther out from the Pole, but he hadn't made much progress the other day. He'd been able to expand his storms, but altering the temperatures so drastically from one extreme to the other was very difficult. He was pretty sure that most of the snow he was sending out beyond the Pole was becoming rain anyway. He also hadn't said anything to the other Guardians, but the storms he had managed to spread were wildly unpredictable. Usually, his control was pretty perfect. He'd had centuries upon centuries of practice, but now his powers seemed to have a mind of their own.

The blast he'd unleashed when he was trying to spread the storms had been.. frightening. He'd told himself it was just because he wasn't used to doing anything large-scale with his powers anymore, but he wasn't sure. With a sigh, he tried to focus back on Wally's light on the globe.

A snowflake landing on his own nose told him that he hadn't been as successful at hiding his upset as he thought and with a sheepish look at a concerned Sandy, he quickly waved his staff to stop the accidental snow in the globe room. The look had morphed into a smirk though when he laid eyes on the adorable sleeping form of Bunny.

"Hey Sandy," Jack said as his smirk widened. "Want to have some fun?"


	4. Chapter 4: New Discoveries

Author's Note: I can't believe how long it took me to write this! Anyway, here is the next chapter. I want to thank those that favorited and followed this, since you inspired me to finish this. I also want to thank those that reviewed the first two chapters, since I was also thinking of you when I wrote this.

Chapter Four: New Discoveries

Wally had brushed aside Baby Tooth's concerns, but he _had to know._ His world was always the same - filled with garbage and loneliness. But this noise he had heard was something _different._ Of course, he had to see what it was. He walked at a fast pace, but hopefully not too fast. The last thing he wanted to do was trigger another asthma attack. He paused as he looked around, the rumbling noise had taken him to a large clearing. He furrowed his brow, since he didn't see anything out of the ordinary..

..Wait!

Wally squinted behind his shades as he looked out into the clearing. What were those red things? His eyes lit up as he looked at them and without another thought he rushed right out into the clearing. Baby Tooth chirped in alarm and quickly followed after Wally.

"Look!" Wally called out happily to Baby Tooth, as he pointed at the red things. They were small and circular and seemed to be forming a ring around him that was getting smaller.

The rumbling noise was also becoming deafening, as if something was drawing closer. Baby Tooth landed on Wally's shoulder and looked around at the tightening circle of red dots in concern -

\- and then she looked up.

What she saw caused her to squawk in alarm, and she tugged harshly on the collar of Wally's uniform.

"Huh?" Wally asked, but then he noticed she was gazing upwards in terror, and he too, looked up.

Wally cried out as what he saw was terrifying. Some giant _thing_ was headed right for him!

Without another thought, Wally ran and dove for cover behind a pile of garbage that was just big enough to hide himself. He patted his chest and took a hit from his inhaler as the wind picked up and the rumbling noise became unbearably loud. When the noise settled down, Wally peeked out from behind the garbage pile while Baby Tooth squeaked in protest. She was still tugging on Wally's collar a bit, since as far as she was concerned, Wally should get out of there _now._

Wally, however, was too curious to leave. He was gazing at this large white thing, that almost looked familiar to him. It looked a little like a smaller version of the thingies he had seen in the hologram ads.. Sort of. His eyes widened when he saw a hatch open in the large white thing.

Wow!

" _What_ is going on?" a testy voice asked from the shadows and Baby Tooth looked down to see a pair of golden eyes glaring up at her.

 _Omigosh!_ she cried out, _It's Pitch!_

Unfortunately, to Wally (and also Pitch), it just sounded like a high pitched panicked chirping.

"Oh, it's you," Pitch commented in a bored tone when he saw Baby Tooth freaking out on Wally's shoulder. "Oh knock it off," Pitch added irritably. "You're behind the times."

Wally glanced down at the golden eyes, which were in the shadow of the garbage pile.

"There's a big thing," he whispered in a raspy voice to Pitch. "It came out of the sky."

"What?" Pitch asked in confusion. "Impossible!"

The golden eyes vanished from their spot, presumably to get a better look at whatever the big white thing was. Wally continued to peek out at it from his spot, and he was surprised to see two men dressed in white uniforms help lower a large pod down to the ground with the help of a large robot arm.

"Ugh, why don't _we_ get to be in stasis too?" one man complained to the other.

The other man turned to his companion with a shrug.

"Not important enough? You know the scouts get frozen to prevent unnecessary aging from all the space travel," the second man said.

"Exactly!" the first man complained. "You know how much all this travel has aged _me?_ "

The second man shook his head and pointed down at the pod.

"Well, old man, you can go wake her up. I'll get the ship ready for takeoff as soon as she's clear," the second man said.

"Fine," the first man grumbled.

The man climbed down a ramp that had come out from the ship and walked over to the big white pod. He popped open a small panel on it and pressed some buttons. There was a hissing noise and the front of the pod slowly opened up, releasing a strange mist.

"You know your job," the man said to whatever was inside the pod. "Do your duty and no goofing off. You might be the youngest scout, but that doesn't mean you can neglect your duties."

With that, the man walked back to the ship and boarded it with his companion. The ramp went back up into the ship and the hatch closed. The sound of the engines, which had died down when the ship landed suddenly amped back up again and the noise was quickly becoming deafening.

A girl sat up in the pod, and Wally couldn't help but stare at her. As she stood, he saw that she was wearing a white uniform as well, but hers was different from the men's. Her's was nearly skintight while their's had clearly been made out of cloth of some sort and was a bit looser. The girl's uniform must have been made to be tougher but Wally didn't much care.

For the first time in forever, he had seen _people._

* * *

Pitch had been waiting for hours for Wally to return! The pot had boiled itself sufficiently, and he had barely managed to turn off the hotplate on his own. Where had that child gotten to?

He had grumbled to himself for what felt like forever before he felt a large surge of fear. It was joined by another surge of fear and this confused him, since.. wasn't Wally all alone?

It took him a moment to remember that the Guardians had mentioned that.. that.. _fairy_ was on her way back to Wally. Obviously she must have found him.

Now what were they up to?

He concentrated on the fear, but he couldn't get much of a coherent thought from it. The fear was just a jumbled mix, which sometimes happened when the person was too afraid to form a coherent thought. Pitch didn't want to think what would happen to Wally to make him that afraid.

He concentrated harder on the fear..

Where was it...

..There!

And like a flash, the golden eyes disappeared from their shadow.

* * *

Pitch had appeared in a shadow near where all the fear had been coming from to see Wally and that annoying little fairy. The fairy nearly had a heart attack when she spotted him, but he had other things on his mind. After the golden eyes had snapped irritably at her, they had vanished into the shadow of the spaceship. Over the last of the rumbles and machinery, Pitch had overheard the conversation between the two men and his heart had nearly stopped.

Were the people coming _back?_

After all this time?

But no, that didn't make any sense! The world wasn't habitable yet. Then he heard them say something about a scout and Pitch nodded to himself. Obviously they had sent someone to survey the land for some reason. Were the people who had cruelly left and abandoned their workers to an inhabitable place thinking of returning?

Pitch nearly scoffed at such a notion, but he stopped himself. He didn't want to see if these men could hear him or not. When he heard them mention something about leaving, the golden eyes returned to their spot by Wally and Baby Tooth.

If the people of Earth were going to return, they had a _lot_ to make up for to little Wally, Pitch decided.

* * *

Wally watched the girl sit up and yawn and a big, goofy smile stretched across his face. He couldn't believe it, but here was another _person._ After all these years!

The girl meanwhile, rubbed her eyes tiredly and got out from the pod. She looked around with a frown on her face, but she didn't spot anything out of the ordinary. Her black hair was cut into a short bob that was shorter in the back. Her hair went down at a sharp angle that reached her chin that was good for space travel. She tucked some of her hair behind her ear as she dug around in the pod and came up with a small pack. It was white like the rest of her outfit, with black straps. She opened it to pull out what looked like two clip-on earphones of some sort. They were black and white, and she easily put them on over her ears. Then she pressed on the side of one, and a dark holographic visor appeared to cover her icy blue eyes.

Apparently having everything she needed, she closed the pod and hurried a good distance away from the ship. When she waved, the ship noisily took off. In a few minutes the ship had blasted off into space and the girl was left all alone. In the noise of takeoff, Wally tried hard not to cough too much, but the dust that was blown up was making his asthma act up. He took another hit of his inhaler and by the time the ship had left, his breathing had settled back down.

As Wally continued to peek out at the girl, he saw that it looked like she was a few years older than him. He could tell she wasn't an adult yet, not like those two guys that had been in the ship. His emerald eyes shone with an intense curiosity behind his shades and just as he was about ready to stand and say hello, all the dust that had been flying around finally got to him, and he sneezed.

It wasn't a particularly loud sneeze, but the silence that was left after the ship departed was deafening and his sneeze sounded much louder because of it.

Like a flash, the girl whipped out a hi-tech looking gun that had been holstered at her side. It was white like the rest of her uniform and therefore easily missed. If it hadn't been for Pitch grabbing Wally at the last second and pulling him to the ground, Wally's light might have been obliterated off the globe. Wally stared up at the trash pile that now had a melted, smoking hole right where his head had been with wide eyes.

He looked from the hole to the golden eyes which had reappeared once Pitch's hand had disappeared back into the shadows. The golden eyes were narrowed, but it was difficult to tell if it was in concern or not. Apparently Pitch wasn't going to encourage more violence from the girl by saying anything, on the off chance she could hear him. Poor Baby Tooth was huddled in the collar of Wally's coverall and was trembling in fear. She too, didn't dare to make a sound.

After a moment of just lying there, Wally heard the girl start moving again, and he very, very quietly got back up to his knees as he dared to peek around the edge of the trash pile. He saw the girl had stopped looking over at him and had holstered her gun again. She pulled her pack off again to pull out a small holographic square of some sort before she put her pack back on. She aimed it at a random patch of soil and pressed something on it. The screen lit up with "SCANNING" and a wide blue beam shot out from the square to shine on the patch of ground it was pointed at.

The girl sighed when "NEGATIVE" popped up on her scanner, and she looked around at all the... nothing. She scowled again and kicked at a small rock before she tucked her scanner away into a pocket that was on her belt. Wally lit up at that, because she was just like him! She had a tool belt too! Then he gave a huge gasp (that thankfully went unheard) as she pressed a hidden button on her belt, and she started to fly up into the air. Apparently her boots and pack had small jets on them that enabled her to fly.

And like a shot, she zoomed off into the air to go explore the area.

Wally stared at the white trails left behind from her flying in awe.

"Wow," he whispered.

Pitch meanwhile was muttering something about trigger-happy psychos and didn't seem to share Wally's enthusiasm even a little.

"C'mon!" Wally called out to Baby Tooth and Pitch as he stood and started to hurry off after the girl.

Pitch had been busy grumbling and had missed what Wally said, but he groaned when he saw the boy take off running.

"Wait!" Pitch called out after Wally, but Wally didn't want to listen.

Pitch grumbled something about children with a death wish and his golden eyes disappeared from the shadow, to flit from shadow to shadow to follow after Wally.

* * *

Jack grinned as he surveyed his handiwork. Sandy was doubled over laughing in a silent fit of giggles and Jack wasn't far from joining him. He had made an ice figurine of himself with his hands by his ears and appeared to be in the middle of going "Nyah nyah na nyah nyah!" with his tongue sticking out and had placed said figurine on Bunny's little head. He had also given Bunny an ice mustache, just because.

For North, he'd placed a big, icy Easter egg in his lap that had "Easter rules!" in a delicate icy script on it and for Tooth he'd given her a pile of icy candy and what appeared to be an icy candy necklace. Sandy had been particularly amused by what Jack had done to Bunny and had paused in his silent laughing long enough to go fetch an old polaroid camera (who knew why North still bothered to have _that_ around the workshop) and took several pictures for posterity.

Jack and Sandy were so busy laughing at the unconscious Guardians that they never noticed little Wally's light growing inexplicably brighter - the brightest it had ever been.

* * *

Wally spent most of the rest of the day chasing after the increasingly frustrated girl. She seemed intent on using her square thing to shine its light onto things, but Wally wasn't exactly sure why. The tool she was using wasn't one that Wally had to use in his daily life, really, so he didn't know what it was. He could guess though, and he guessed it was a scanner of some sort. What she was scanning for, however, he had no idea. Wally was just so excited at the thought he wasn't all alone anymore that he couldn't help but follow this girl around.

Wally had to use his inhaler a few times, since running or moving so quickly wasn't very good for his asthma, but he considered it worth it just to keep following this girl. He was bright-eyed and had the biggest smile on his face that Baby Tooth had ever seen. It had taken a long time for her to stop shivering under the collar of Wally's coveralls, but she had finally come out to fly near Wally. She still didn't dare to make any noise though.

Wally, too, had been keeping his distance. Mostly because his asthma was making him wheeze more, and he didn't want the noise attracting the girl's attention. While he wanted to follow her around, he was also a bit scared of her since she almost killed him. That still didn't stop him from following her around though.

As the girl stopped to shine her light onto things, Wally grew braver and silently crept closer to her while keeping hidden behind the piles of trash. Baby Tooth, her wings growing tired, had landed on Wally's shoulder for a bit and cocked her head curiously at the girl, wondering for the umpteenth time what this girl was doing on Earth. After all these years, why was she here now?

While Wally hid behind a pile of trash to spy on Eve, a pair of golden eyes appeared in a nearby shadow. The eyes had finally dared to break the silence to start to hiss at Wally for how foolish he was being in following this - this _psycho,_ but that was as far as he got.

The girl had whirled around as soon as Pitch started to speak and before anyone knew it, she had pulled out her gun and had obliterated the trash pile that Wally had been hiding behind. Once the smoke cleared, Wally stood there trembling, but a terrified squeak from his collar spurred Wally into trying to run away and hide. Wally might have been curious about her, but he didn't have a death wish!

Unfortunately, every trash pile he tried to hide behind was blasted out of existence before he even reached it, until he was left trembling near the smoking remains with nowhere at all to hide. The girl had her gun pointed at Wally and unable to stand the overwhelming fear he felt, Wally crouched down and covered his head. The golden eyes had appeared in Wally's shadow, but had soon disappeared to reveal gray fingers inching out.

Pitch didn't care if he didn't have the energy for this, he wasn't about to leave Wally to get killed by some lunatic. Just as the fingers were about to reach Wally's pants, the girl's voice caused him to pause.

"Who are you?" the girl demanded harshly, her voice steady and commanding.

Wally didn't dare answer, he just continued trembling like a leaf. He was certain the girl was going to blast him right out of existence too!

"Who are you?" the girl repeated in the same harsh tone, but Wally was too frightened to say anything.

Eve stared at Wally for a long moment in consideration. She held out her little square and the light shined onto him, but it quickly came back as "NEGATIVE," as she suspected. She turned away from him in derision and began to move off to go find other things to scan.

She couldn't help but glance back at him though.. She had been told this planet was completely uninhabitable.

So why was there a person here?

* * *

It was a long time before Wally was finally able to push the blind panic he'd felt down and uncurled himself from his little ball. He gingerly stood and looked around to see if he could spot the girl anywhere. He couldn't immediately see her, but he could hear the sounds of her flying around and his face lit up.

"Are you done with this insanity yet?" a golden pair of eyes drawled from a nearby shadow.

Wally glanced at them in surprise.

"You almost died, you know," the eyes said conversationally.

Wally tilted his head. Did he hear a tremor? Was.. Was the _Boogeyman_ scared?

Wally looked at the eyes in consideration.

...Nah.

It was probably just his imagination.

"It's a _person,_ " Wally told the eyes as if that explained everything.

And in a way, it had.

Poor little Wally had been alone for so long that any sign of people had him following after this girl, even if she was a bit trigger-happy. He couldn't help it. He couldn't just pretend that she hadn't come to their world at all.

That still didn't stop Pitch from his long-suffering sigh as Wally hurried off to go find the girl again.

This was going to be a _very_ long day.

* * *

Pitch was right, it was a very long day. He found himself unable to leave Wally alone, for fear he'd do something stupid again and incur the girl's murderous wrath. He did _not_ have such a hellish night last night for nothing!

So he found himself flitting from shadow to shadow following after Wally, who was following Eve like a lost puppy. It was somewhat sad, and nothing he said to Wally would get the boy to stop.

Finally, when the sun had dipped low into the sky, the girl had stopped her search for whatever she was searching for and had returned to where the white pod had been. It was in the open, and she'd easily be able to see if anything tried to approach her from there.

Wally was crouched low behind the somewhat melted pile of trash he'd been hiding behind before as the girl dug around in her pack. She produced a small cube and carelessly tossed it to the ground. To Wally's (and Pitch's, although he'd never admit to it) amazement, the cube instantly sprung up into a small tent. The outside was hard and very resistant to numerous things.

Wally startled when small holes opened up at the four corners and sides of the tent and metal ropes of some sort flew out. They had sharp spikes on the end and the spikes drove themselves deep into the ground, their metal ropes taught.

The girl walked around the tent and kicked at one of the spikes. Apparently satisfied, she touched a hidden button on the front of the tent. To Wally's amazement, a half-circle appeared on the front of the tent next to where the girl had pushed and it smoothly went to the side, leaving an opening on the front of the tent. The girl looked completely unsurprised at this and crawled inside. As soon as she was inside, the half-circle slid closed and then seemed to vanish. It looked indistinguishable from the rest of the tent.

Wally stared at the strange contraption that the girl had crawled into for a long moment. He could hear faint noises coming from inside, so the girl must be doing something in there.

But what?

Wally carefully stood from behind the trash pile and to Pitch's utter dismay he began to walk towards the tent. Baby Tooth, who'd been following Wally the entire day chirped softly in concern from Wally's shoulder, where she'd settled down when Wally had hidden behind the trash.

Wally glanced at her and placed a finger to his lips. They had to be stealthy.

Baby Tooth's eyes went wide and she instantly stopped chirping as she remembered what had happened earlier that day. Pitch, from his spot further back in the shadows, noticed this and rolled his eyes.

It wasn't like the girl could hear them!

She could only hear Wally, right..?

But...

Then why did she hear Pitch earlier, when he was talking to Wally?

Pitch puzzled over this, but could only come up with one answer to this. However, since this girl was clearly insane, it wasn't a theory that he'd care to test. The golden eyes watched Wally thoughtfully as Wally snuck up to the tent with the insufferable fairy.

Perhaps he could see about things later that night.

With a satisfied smirk, Pitch watched and waited.

* * *

As the sun began to set, Wally snuck right up to the tent. He remembered when he was younger and things.. weren't so great, and out of desperation some people had resorted to using tents.

He shivered as he tried to push those unpleasant thoughts away.

No.. tents couldn't stand up to the ferocious sandstorms that would come out of nowhere. With this in mind, he gently placed a hand flat to the surface of the tent and was surprised by how firm and hard it felt.

Maybe this could stand up to the storms?

Wally examined the tent further, but couldn't find much of anything else to investigate about it. Baby Tooth glanced at Wally from her perch on his shoulder, but she didn't dare say anything to him.

Wally frowned a little as he stared at the tent in consternation. The girl had seemed so mad whenever she had seen him. What could he do to make her happy?

Wally's eyes lit up as he had a light bulb moment. Baby Tooth looked a little worried at the impish grin that was shot her way as Wally stealthily hurried off.

A pair of golden eyes watched Wally scurry away briefly, but opted to stay where they were, spying on the tent.

It would only be a matter of time.

* * *

As soon as Wally got far enough away, he slowed down to cough. He wasn't surprised at this, since he'd been battling with his asthma all day - doing far too much had caused him to stop frequently to use his inhaler. Baby Tooth gave Wally a concerned chirp, but Wally ignored it in favor of using his inhaler.

He patted his chest as he caught his breath and smiled at Baby Tooth reassuringly.

"I'm okay," he told her with his quiet, raspy voice.

Wally looked around where they were and took note of the few trashy landmarks that could be seen - it would be difficult to find if he wanted to wander back later that night. Then he remembered his poor wagon with a pang of regret and a grimace. He _hated_ wandering around in the dark, but he _had_ to grab it! Anything could happen to it out in the open and then what would he do? He'd be so lost without his wagon or the miniature trash compactor.

With a look of determination, Wally headed back to where he'd last been. He was going to have a _really_ long night - not that he minded, because he couldn't wait until the morning to see what the girl would make of his surprise.

He grinned to himself as he thought of her reaction and continued to hurry back to his wagon.

* * *

A little while later, when darkness had completely fallen, Pitch dared to wander a little closer to the tent. The faint noises that could be heard from inside had stopped and now all was quiet. He wondered vaguely what little Wally was doing, and decided (or more like hoped) that Wally was probably back at the truck getting ready for bed. Perhaps watching one of his treasured videos that he liked so much.

As the eyes appeared right in the shadow of the tent, he waited tensely for any sort of sound but couldn't hear anything. He supposed this was a good sign, but he couldn't help but be cautious. After all, the girl was clearly very dangerous and armed. It wouldn't be fun for even the Boogeyman to be shot right in the eyes.

The golden eyes disappeared from the shadow and appeared inside the tent in a small shadow created from the girl's pack that she'd left leaning against the side of the tent near where she slept. Pitch could see her hair peeking out from what appeared to be some sort sleeping bag. It was very dark inside the tent but that suited him just fine.

He watched her and then paused - he remembered the accusation earlier from the Guardians that he'd been giving Wally nightmares, but the truth was that he hadn't actually given anyone nightmares in _years._

Could he remember how to do it?

He couldn't help but grimace at the implications of that thought.

He was the Boogeyman!

What sort of spirit was he, if he couldn't even remember how to do his _job?_

Inwardly grumbling at himself, the golden eyes vanished and reappeared in a smaller shadow of the girl's boots, which were slightly closer to the sleeping bag than the pack.

Pitch marshaled what was left of his strength and then reached out to the girl with his powers.

* * *

The next morning came far too quickly for Wally's liking, as he tiredly sat behind a trash pile while he watched the tent that the girl was still inside of. The sun was just starting to peek over the horizon when the door to the tent suddenly opened. The girl was about to step outside when she heard a strange sound and saw a piece of paper flutter to the ground.

She realized it must have been stuck to the door of her tent somehow, and she narrowed her eyes at it suspiciously before she bent down to pick it up. She stared at it for a long moment as she studied it.

Wally perked up as he saw the girl looking at his drawing. Did she like it?

The drawing on the paper was extremely childish (and done in crayon), but there was no mistaking the figure with the black hair and blue eyes. Next to the figure was another one with blond hair and dark green eyes. The two figures appeared to be holding hands and had big smiles on their faces.

Below the two figures was a word that was scrawled inexpertly, looking almost as if the letters had been copied from somewhere.

The girl almost glared at the word "Friends" that was below the two figures and carelessly tossed the paper aside. She had more important things to do!

Wally visibly deflated when the girl tossed aside his drawing. He'd spent _forever_ working on it. Why didn't she like it?

...Why didn't she like _him?_

A pair of golden eyes winced at the light that was beginning to fill the tent and uttered a small sigh of relief when the door closed. Last night had been a complete disappointment to Pitch. He had hoped to find some insight into why the girl could hear him, but instead all he saw in the nightmares he gave her throughout the night were her fears and insecurities.

She was afraid of failing her mission and a bunch of people were all ganging up on her, scolding her for failing to do her job. Just what that job was, Pitch had no idea. Her nightmares hadn't given him much information at all. Instead, all he'd seen were some people he didn't know giving the girl harsh words. One even slapped her in anger, but all they would tell her was that they couldn't believe she had failed! The youngest scout!

Pitch scowled to himself as he tiredly rubbed his eyes. He'd only managed a few hours of sleep by the time he'd given up on the nightmares, and he'd used his powers far too much the day before. He thought of Wally trailing after the girl again like a lost puppy and wondered if it would be worth the effort to bother following after the child. He thought briefly of just heading back to the truck and waiting on Wally there, but then he thought of when Wally had almost been blasted to smithereens by that psycho.

Pitch internally groaned at that.

No, he had to follow Wally to save the boy from his own stupidity.

He just knew it was going to be yet another long day.

* * *

Wally followed after Eve much like the day before. He spent a lot of time diving behind trash piles when Eve would look his way, and he was pretty certain that she must know that he was there considering how often she turned her head towards him. But unlike yesterday, she made no move to engage or talk to him. She would just huff in irritation when he would dive for cover and continue scanning her surroundings.

It was when the sun was high in the sky when the girl first gave a loud growl of frustration. She clearly wasn't finding what she was looking for, no matter what she scanned. Wally tilted his head at her curiously. What was she looking for anyway? He wished she would talk to him.. if only just a little. He tried very hard to push the thought away that maybe she would _never_ talk to him.

That couldn't happen, right?

The girl angrily kicked one of her boots out at a bucket and sent it flying. Then for good measure she pulled out her gun faster than anything and blasted the bucket to kingdom come. It was soon full of holes and barely recognizable as a bucket. Scowling, the girl aimed her gun at a pile of cars and fired continuously.[1]

 **KA - BOOOM!**

It didn't take long for the car to explode once the red beams from the gun hit it and it soon started a chain reaction.

 **KABOOOOM!**

There was another explosion followed by another. Wally stared at the carnage, his green eyes huge behind his wraparound shades with his hands over his ears. Baby Tooth had once again retreated to hide in his collar, shivering in her fright. Pitch, who was deeply regretting following after Wally, winced at the sound of the explosions.

The girl was completely nuts!

He was so busy cringing at the explosions that he failed to notice what Wally was doing next. If he had been paying more attention to little Wally, he would have been able to stop Wally from doing what he considered to be something incredibly stupid.

As the cars finished their explosions, the girl stood staring at the raging fire. Her eyes were once again shielded by the odd holographic wraparound shade that seemed to come from the two earphone-like things that were clipped to her ears. After a long moment she sighed and holstered her weapon as she trudged over to a pile of trash and plopped down to the ground dejectedly in front of it. She pulled her knees up to her chest as she leaned back against the rusty safe she was sitting in front of, staring at the flames.

After a minute of her not moving, Wally plucked up the courage to unfurl himself from his crouched positing behind a pile of trash and stood up. He tensed as though waiting for the girl to start shooting at him again, but she gave no indication of having seen him. So Wally very carefully started walking toward the girl. He made sure to keep his footsteps light and to keep his movements slow - just in case.

It took him several minutes to reach her, and even then he still kept his distance. He sat down on the ground a ways away from her and pulled his knees up to his chest too, as he unconsciously mimicked her.

The girl's head turned slightly in his direction and her icy blue eyes stared at him indifferently behind her holographic shades.

"Richtlinie?"[2] the girl asked him, her voice coming out commanding and ringing with authority.

Wally tilted his head a little in confusion.

"指令?" the girl tried again.

Wally scratched his head and the girl could practically see the question marks floating in the air beside him. She gave another huff of frustration.

"Directive?" the girl shot at him, her voice filled with exasperation.

Wally visibly perked up at that, and he grinned at her. He quickly stood and trotted off to fetch his wagon, which he'd been dragging along after him all day. (A number of times the girl had turned to Wally, only to see a little red wagon sitting alone as its owner dove behind a pile of trash.)

The girl stared at Wally as he fetched the mysterious wagon and dragged it over to where he'd been sitting. Wally scooped up some trash with his trusty shovel and shoved it hurriedly into his trash compactor. He slammed the door shut on it and let it run for only a few seconds before stopping it.

What resembled a cube of barely compacted trash fell out from it before it sadly fell apart and became a pile of trash again, only a little more squashed now.

"Tadaaa!" Wally proudly waved at the somewhat squashed pile of trash proudly before he resumed his seat once more.

The girl looked from the pile of trash back to Wally, back to the pile of trash again before once more settling her gaze back on Wally.

He looked at the girl with bright-eyed curiosity and a happy smile on his face.

"D-directive?" Wally stuttered over the unfamiliar word with his raspy voice.

The girl's gaze sharpened behind her holographic shades (not that Wally could see) and she turned her head away from him.

"It's classified," she told him stiffly.

"Oh," Wally softly replied. He pulled his knees back up to his chest and looked down at the ground, dejected. He had thought that if he talked to the girl she would be nicer to him, but she sounded like she hated him. _Why?_

There was a long stretch of silence as the girl took in Wally's dejected form. She sighed again and finally took some pity on him.

"What's your name?" she asked Wally, her voice flat, but less harsh than it had been.

Wally lifted his head a little and glanced at her.

"Wally," he told her, his voice still soft. "..What's - "

"Eve," the girl cut him off as she finally got back to her feet.

A small smile found its way onto Wally's face as he too, stood.

"E.. Ev-ah?" Wally stumbled over her name.

Eve rolled her eyes and gave Wally a look, not that he noticed.

" _Eve,_ " she corrected him.

The grin grew wider on Wally's face.

"Ev-ah!" he said again, deciding that this would be a suitable pronunciation. He didn't know why, but for some reason he had a difficult time pronouncing 'Eve.'[3]

The wind began to pick up as Eve faced Wally and placed her hands on her hips.

"For the last time," she started loudly, "It's - "

"Ev-ah!" Wally cried out as he wildly pointed behind her, cutting her off.

Eve huffed again and shook her head at Wally's antics. Obviously he just wanted to get her back for cutting him off in the first place. This was a waste of time, she had a mission to get to!

She started to stomp off (to where, she had no idea) when the rapidly approaching sandstorm hit. It seemed to spring up out of nowhere. One second she was storming away and the next a whirlwind of sand had completely surrounded her, clouding her vision. She coughed as she looked around, but she all she could see was the huge cloud of sand that surrounded her.

Wally flung out a hand as if to reach out for Eve as the storm hit. It blew up around them so quickly! He didn't hear his little friend's squawk of alarm nor Pitch's surprised shout, but he could feel his little friend squirming around underneath the collar of his coveralls. He reached up with a gloved hand and gently patted her.

"E-Evah...!" Wally cried out as he started to cough.

"WALLY!" Eve screamed back as she tried to turn to where she thought the sound had come from, but she still couldn't see anything. Then suddenly a shadow appeared in the whirling sand, and she felt a gloved hand firmly grip hers. Wally took the lead and began to tug her urgently.

Not daring to fly in the raging whirlwind of a storm, she staggered after Wally.

* * *

It felt like it had taken hours for them to get back to Wally's truck. Wally had taken her all the way back along with his little red wagon. If it hadn't been weighed down by the trash compactor, it would have blown away. Even so, Wally would definitely have to get a new shovel. Who knew where that thing had flown off to.

Wally led Eve up the ramp to his truck and inside before he managed to close the door. He staggered to where his lights were and hastily turned them on before the coughing overtook him.

Eve stared around the inside of the truck in wonder. She had never in her life seen anything like this! Then she registered the sound of Wally coughing and gasping for air.

Wally clutched his chest with his shades hanging halfway off his face haphazardly, his cheeks turning red from the exertion of trying to breathe. He scrambled for the pockets of his tool belt with his other hand and came up with his inhaler. He quickly inserted it into his mouth and depressed it, as he waited for the medicine to do its work.

Nothing happened.

Wally frantically pressed the top of his inhaler again and still nothing happened. He dropped it as he coughed even more, his face completely red now.

"..Wally..?" Eve called out to him, the first note of uncertainty that Wally had heard from her.

Trying to be brave, Wally attempted to wave at her nonchalantly as he staggered over to his shelves. He stabbed at the button that controlled them and Eve watched as the shelves rotated around. Once they reached the medical supplies the shelves stopped rotating and Wally frantically grabbed at an inhaler.

Finally, he was able to trigger it and the medicine puffed out to do its work. It took several long moments for Wally's breathing to settle down, and he had to trigger his inhaler once more.

Eve stared at Wally, her eyes a bit wide, since she could actually _hear_ him struggle to breathe. Raised in a huge cruise ship with all disease eradicated, she had never heard anything like it before.

"Wally?" she called out again, her voice softer.

"..F.. fine.." Wally wheezed back as he massaged his chest. "..I'm.. fine..."

Eve didn't look at all convinced, but she nodded anyway. She reached up to her ears to remove the earphone things, since she wouldn't need her holographic shades indoors and paused when she only found one was attached. She ripped the remaining one off in disgust and shoved it into a pouch on her belt.

Great, now how was she going to shield her eyes?

Not to mention it also displayed the information of what she scanned! A lot of the things she scanned she hadn't seen before, so now what was she going to do?

Wally waited another few moments for his wheezing to die down a bit, and then he motioned Eve over to where he was. Eve noticed this and walked over to him curiously. Before she could ask him what he wanted, Wally was rotating the shelves around again. He stopped on one shelf that had a pile of assorted things on it. Wally waved a hand at it grandly with a huge grin on his face, as if he hadn't just been fighting for his life mere moments ago.

Eve stared at Wally curiously, but he seemed so _eager._ Obliging, she looked over at the shelves and then her curiosity got to her. She grabbed her scanner back out of a pouch and scanned a few things on the shelves while Wally hurried off while she was distracted.

Eve wasn't surprised when the things she scanned came back "NEGATIVE." Everything else had, so why should this be any different?

Eve stared at the objects on the shelves as she tucked her scanner back into one of her belt pouches. She looked curiously at the mugs full of spoons and forks and poked at the strange combination of the two that was sitting on the shelf in the middle of them. She picked up a Rubik's cube and looked at it before she placed it back down on the shelf again. She pressed the button Wally had and the shelves rotated around again, before stopping randomly when Eve let the button go.

She picked up a lighter as Wally made his way back over to her, now clad in only his BnL t-shirt and jeans, his feet bare. He watched as Eve examined the lighter, before she opened the top of it and flicked it on.

"Ohh," Wally said in awe as he stared at the mesmerizing flame.

Eve stared at it too, before with a flick of her wrist the top of the metal lighter closed and the flame was extinguished. She looked around some more at the shelf, but Wally had snapped out of it and was reaching for her hand.

"Ev-ah," Wally said to her excitedly.

Eve jerked her hand away from Wally's reflexively and absently tucked the lighter away into one of her pouches.

"It's - " Eve started to correct Wally, but she stopped as she noticed he was practically vibrating in happiness. She remembered before when he looked so sad, and stopped in mid sentence. There was an awkward pause as she closed her mouth and then opened it to ask Wally what he wanted.

Wally gestured frantically at her to follow him.

"Come on!" he said excitedly to her as he rushed off.

Eve blinked at his enthusiasm but followed after him all the same. She stared at the curiousness that was the iPod/magnifier combo as Wally rushed to the VCR and pushed his favorite tape into it.

The sudden noise and sound had Eve pulling her gun out on pure instinct as she pointed it at the TV. Wally saw this and panicked a bit as he rushed to get in front of Eve and protect his precious tape.

"No!" Wally almost shouted at her in alarm, with his arms spread wide.

Eve looked startled, since besides his shouting in the storm, this was the loudest she had ever heard Wally be.

"No, Ev-ah," Wally said, his voice more gentle as he pushed the gun down and away from the magnifier screen.

Eve sighed and holstered her gun again.

"Look," Wally told her as he gestured at the screen.

On the screen was a bunch of people dressed up in their best clothes as they happily sang and danced around. Eve watched the screen in complete confusion, since she'd never seen anything like it before. Sure, the passengers on the ship were constantly glued to their screens, but they were always talking to someone or watching a BnL ad. They never watched anyone singing or dancing.

While Eve was distracted, Wally found the trashcan lid where he had carefully placed it and took his place near Eve again. Eve looked over at Wally as he goofily used the trashcan lid as a makeshift hat in his hand as he pretended to lift it off his head like the man on the screen had been. Wally tried to dance around like the guy had been, but he had accidentally stepped on the bottom of his jeans and started to fall.

Eve hurriedly reached out and caught Wally in her arms as the scene changed on the screen to a more romantic one with the man and a beautiful woman singing to one another.

Wally looked up at Eve, who quickly got Wally firmly back on his feet before hastily pulling away, her cheeks a bit pink. Wally smiled, not noticing her pink cheeks as he pulled his mattress over so it was in a better position to see the screen. He plopped down on it and patted the spot next to him as he looked up at Eve with his emerald eyes. Eve hesitated a fraction of a second before she settled down next to Wally, leaving a good-sized gap between them.

* * *

Several hours later, the sun had risen outside of Wally's truck to reveal that it was now completely calm outside. Inside, both Eve and Wally were sprawled out on Wally's mattress, with Wally laying on his back while Eve was laying on her front with her arms crossed and her head resting down onto them. Wally's feet were by her face, not that she could tell at the moment. She had finally thought to remove her boots sometime in the night and her perfectly clean feet (clad in white ankle socks that had completely fascinated Wally) were down by Wally's head.

The screen of the magnifier showed that Wally had switched tapes and had been playing. Eve's eyes instantly snapped open when the tape finished playing and reverted to black and white snow before it stopped with a loud click and then began to automatically rewind.

Eve slowly sat up and yawned as she sleepily rubbed an eye and looked at the screen curiously. It wasn't playing anything at all now and was blank. She looked from the screen and then spotted Wally sprawled out on the mattress next to her. She shook her head as she saw that Wally's mouth was open, and he was drooling a little.

As she stood and stretched, she was unaware of the golden eyes that were carefully watching her from a dark corner of the truck. They had appeared a few hours earlier, but both Wally and Eve had been absorbed in what they were watching and hadn't noticed the golden eyes' arrival. Which is just the way Pitch wanted it for now.

Pitch glared at Eve mistrustfully as she stretched and got to her feet. What had she come here for? She was obviously looking around for something, but what? He continued to glare at her as his mind whirred in thought.

Meanwhile, Eve started to pat the pouches that were attached to her belt down and soon came up with a protein bar of some sort. She was grateful that it was wrapped as sand had somehow found its way into the pouch. She tore the wrapper off the bar (which said _"BnL ALL THE NUTRIENTS YOU NEED!"_ in enticingly large, bubbly letters on the wrapper), and hungrily ate the thing in only a few bites. She'd been so busy the other day that she hadn't eaten much at all. She crumpled the wrapper back up and tucked it back into her pouch as her gaze fell back down to Wally.

What did he eat?

She looked at him consideringly while Pitch continued to furiously think. Unaware of the Boogeyman's presence, she settled on padding around in her socks and soon wandered over to Wally's shelves curiously.

By the time Wally finally woke up, Eve had long since settled back down onto the mattress nearby him and was staring at a letter she had found in one of Wally's books. It was a letter from all the Guardians. While they'd been watching the specials, Wally had eagerly explained all about the Guardians to Eve, who had sat and listened in amusement. She had thought it was strange of Wally to talk about the supposed Guardians as if they were _real,_ but now..

What was this letter?

Wally sat up sleepily and saw Eve holding his precious leather bound book and the letter that he had placed inside of it for safekeeping.

"Wh-what are you doing?" Wally asked her, stuttering a bit as he yawned while talking. They'd stayed up far too late last night while they watched his tapes.

"What is this?" Eve asked as she waved the letter in Wally's face.

Wally gently grabbed the letter from Eve and looked down at the handwriting on it. He looked down at the signatures at the bottom and a small smile crept onto his face.

"It's my letter from the Guardians," Wally said, as if that explained everything.

"You mean.. Santa and.. the Tooth Fairy..?" Eve asked Wally cautiously.

Wally nodded eagerly.

"And the Sandman, Easter Bunny and Jack Frost!" Wally added on.

Eve stared at the letter before she looked away.

"They aren't real," she scoffed, although her tone wasn't anywhere near harsh.

"Yes they are," Wally said softly as he hugged the letter protectively to himself. "He gave it to me."

"Who?" Eve asked Wally suspiciously. She had been under the impression that Wally had been on this planet by himself, judging from the lack of people.

"The Boogeyman," Wally told Eve, who widened her eyes at this.

"The _B-Boogeyman?_ " Eve stuttered. "He's _here?_ "

 _Is he REAL?!_

The girl's fear suddenly screamed out to Pitch in his corner, and he raised an invisible eyebrow at her. So.. his suspicions had been correct after all. This girl had somehow heard about him and somewhat believed in him - enough so that she could hear him, apparently.

Hmm.. this was certainly interesting.

"Yeah," Wally said with a note of curiosity in his voice. "Do you know him?"

Eve coughed in embarrassment and tried to pull herself together.

"Of.. of course! Everyone's heard of him," she said offhandedly to Wally.

Wally shrugged at that, not quite realizing the implications in his sleepy state as he walked over to the corner where he kept his foodstuff, along with his hot plate that still had the pot of water on it. He carefully poured some of his precious water into a bottle and grabbed a package of one of the BnL cakes along with one of his little friend's Kremies. He carried this back over to Eve and thrust everything into her hands.

"Here," Wally said simply to her. When she stared at what Wally had given him, he merely smiled in return. "You must be hungry and thirsty, right?"

Eve blinked in response and Wally went back to the corner, presumably to get something for himself. She looked back down at what Wally had given her. She recognized the packing of Buy 'N Large and looked at the Kremie curiously. Her gaze moved from the Kremie to the bottle of water and she grimaced. Even though the water had been boiled, it still looked off to her and the bottle was _far_ from clean. In fact, as far as she could tell, the entire planet was filthy with Wally not being an exception.

She glanced over at Wally, and he turned to her with his mouth full. He gave her a thumbs up, and she looked away and back down to what he had given her, pretending to not notice the dirt smeared on his cheeks or on his t-shirt. It'd been much easier to pretend when it had been dark and light hadn't been filtering in through the truck's door.

She juggled the items in her arms and managed to somehow open the BnL package. She gingerly took a bite and froze as her eyes widened.

She had never tasted something so horrible in her life, and she had grown up eating all sorts of BnL foodstuffs. She noticed Wally was watching her, and she forced herself to chew and swallow the big bite she'd taken. She gave Wally a smile that felt more like a grimace and hastily forced the rest of the BnL cake down. She stuffed the Kremie into her pack and silently vowed that she'd chuck it the first chance she got (or sneak it back to wherever Wally had gotten it from).

Eve carried the bottle of water back over to Wally and handed it to him.

"I have my own," she explained.

"Oh!" Wally said as he watched her retreat back to where she'd left her pack.

With a shrug he tucked the extra bottle of water away and sipped from the one he had poured himself. Meanwhile, Eve retrieved her own water bottle that was in a spotless reusable container and contained carefully filtrated water in it. She drank from it in relief as she wondered how Wally could stand living in filth like he did.

It never occurred to her that he had never known anything else.

Wally finished up his breakfast and some of his water. He put the cap back on the bottle and placed it next to where he had put the bottle he'd gotten back from Eve. Making sure the area was as tidy as he could make it, Wally straightened back up and rocked back on his heels a bit as he gazed around the truck.

Normally he'd start getting ready to head outside and go about his duty of compacting trash, but..

..But how could he do that when there was _another person_ around?

It was much more exciting than compacting trash.

Then Wally's face lit up as he remembered the green thing and how much it had meant to the Boogeyman. Surely Eve would think it's just as wonderful, right?

Wally started to head for where he kept it (near where he stored his wagon and hung his coveralls up) and Pitch's golden eyes widened as it suddenly came to him in a flash:

 _That must be what the girl came here for!_

Of _course_ a scout would be sent out to look for signs of life! A plant would be irrefutable proof that life _was_ in fact viable on this godforsaken planet!

Which, of course, meant that the girl would grab the plant and leave Wally all alone.

...Which would definitely break poor Wally's spirit.

Which would in turn, destroy the last of his belief.

All of that flashed through Pitch's mind in a few short moments and his golden eyes vanished from the shadow they were in, flitting over to a shadow near where the plant was. The eyes were soon replaced with his gray fingers, and he very quickly and deftly moved the boot, hiding it behind some miscellaneous items.

Wally scratched his head as he reached the spot where the boot had been and looked around in confusion. He had just seen the green thing here a moment ago! Where had it gone?

"Did you lose something?" Eve asked Wally curiously.

"Ah.." Wally glanced at the empty spot where the green thing had been. "I.. I guess not."

"I have to go outside," Eve said patiently to Wally and Wally noticed that while he'd been busy, Eve had put her boots and pack back on.

Wally deflated a bit at that.

"Oh.. Of.. of course," he said as he hurried over the controls for the door and opened it up for her. He was surprised when he didn't hear the normal hiss and grumble about how bright it was, but mentally shrugged to himself. Maybe the Boogeyman wasn't here this morning.

"Maybe I'll see you around?" Eve said casually as she strode over to the open door.

"Yeah!" Wally exclaimed as he perked up.

Eve walked out the door and strode partway down the ramp. To Wally's surprise she suddenly flew up into the air with the help of her thrusters and took off in a flash, flying off towards where Wally had built his many trash skyscrapers.

Wally coughed as the thrusters kicked up dust that flew into the truck, but he couldn't help the excited grin that seemed permanently stuck on his face. He rushed to where his coveralls where hanging and changed into them in record time as he haphazardly tried to zip them up and stuff one of his feet into a boot at the same time.

"I don't know if it's such a good idea to continuously follow this girl around," Pitch spoke up from where his golden eyes had been hiding again in a far corner.

Wally paused in mid-zip and looked around before he spotted the golden eyes, which had moved to a shadow that was closer to himself.

"It's _people,_ " Wally countered as if that said it all.

"But that doesn't mean - " Pitch started to say and then stopped, since Wally had finished getting ready in record time and was already hauling his wagon outside.

Baby Tooth popped her head up from where she'd also been hiding and looked out after Wally in concern. He'd forgotten all about her! She quickly flew up and followed after him, while Pitch watched from the shadows.

"At least one of them has some sense," Pitch muttered to himself, referring to Baby Tooth who had spent the entire time Eve was there, hiding from her.

He stared out the door for a moment and gave a long suffering sigh before busying himself with finding a better hiding spot for the plant. It was going to be so much _fun_ trying to water the darn thing while keeping it hidden away from the girl.

* * *

[1] I know that in the movie that Eve blows up some ships after she gets stuck on a big magnet, but I felt like the explosion from that would be a _little_ bit too big for humans. Plus I figured the noise from that would be unbearable, so I changed it up a bit and made the explosions smaller.

[2]Eve is speaking German here, which Google assures me is the proper word for 'directive.' After that it's japanese characters for 'directive.' I just copied and pasted.

Author's Note: Whew, that was a long chapter! There were a few times I was thinking of stopping, but I decided to continue. I originally was going to have everything with Eve in one huge chapter, but it would have been too big. So I decided to split it up into a couple chapters instead. As we know, Eve doesn't have long with Wally before she discovers the plant. In this, Pitch is interfering, so Eve will have longer to get to know Wally before _drama_ happens.

I also know I skipped over Wally's incredibly cute montage in the movie, but since Wally has longer with Eve in this fic, I decided I didn't have to put everything all at once.I tried to make things a little different from the movie (while still having some familiar things), so you'll have to let me know how I did on that front. I'm also thinking of extending Wally's time on the ship a bit (since I think he's only there for a day or so), so you'll have to let me know what you think of that.

Anyway, I hope you guys liked this chapter and even if it does take me forever to post, I won't give up on my fics.


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